For Better Or Worse?
by CastleRockGirl
Summary: Laura is suffering from cancer, it seems as though it's been ages since she felt alive. With a mother who doesn't care and a sickness that is eating her alive, body and soul, she feels as though she has nothing to live for. Then she meets Matt and her life changes drastically, but she can't work out if it's for better or worse. Matt/OC
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: Hey everyone! This is my first ever fanfiction and I am so nervous! I have always loved The Haunting in Connecticut and I thought it would be a great place to publish my first fanfic. This story is about my OC, Laura, who is suffering from cancer and hasn't felt alive in a long time. And then she meets Matt. I just wanted to post the first chapter and see how everyone liked it, so feel free to drop me a review!**

**Diclaimer: I do not known anything from The Haunting In Connecticut, all lines, storylines and characters. I only own my OCs.  
**

**Chapter 1:**

As I walked to the waiting room to wait until my mom came to pick me up, I felt like my legs weighed a ton. I shuffled over to a chair and tried to slowly lower myself down to avoid any pain in my joints but my legs gave out and I sort of fell into it. I looked up and a middle-aged woman and a guy around my age were looking at me, concerned. "Sorry about that, I'm just really tired." I said politely. The woman smiled at me kindly, but I could feel the pity radiating off her. I gave her a strained smile and looked down, I hated when people looked at me like that, like I had "CANCER GIRL" written on my forehead. I could still feel the guy's eyes on me and I resisted the urge to ask him if he wanted to take a picture because it lasts longer but I thought better of it. A few seconds later I had had enough of avoiding his gaze and met his eyes. Any feelings of anger I had were gone, he was so cute. He had short blonde hair and kind green eyes, but they had bags under them. He looked very pale and thin, I guess he had cancer too. I was no supermodel myself, I had limbs like twigs and I always looked tired. But as I looked into his eyes I didn't see any pity, just understanding. I gave him a small smile and my heart skipped a beat when he returned it. Oh yea,_ very_ cute.

My romantic thoughts were interrupted when my stomach heaved and I could tell I was gonna throw up. I covered my mouth to keep it down and stood up quickly to get to a bathroom, but I swayed on my feet as a huge head rush nearly had me on the floor. Suddenly I felt a pair of arms support me and lead to quickly to a bathroom and into a stall. I emptied my stomach into the toilet, and as I did so the person's hands rubbed my back soothingly and handed me some toilet roll when I was done. I took it and whipped my mouth before standing up shakily and flushing the toilet. As I turned round to thank who I assumed was a nurse, the words got stuck hallway up my throat. It was the cute guy from the waiting room. Oh shit.

I blushed with embarrassment and tucked some of my brown hair behind my ear, the silence was starting to get a bit awkward so I said the first thing that came to my mind, "Well that's one way of getting a cute guy alone in a bathroom with you." I internally slapped myself, that was the best I could come up with?

He laughed and I had to smile at the sound, "yeah it's a good plan, if only it didn't have to involve you puking." he joked and I laughed a real laugh for the first time in… I don't know how long.

"Wouldn't that just be perfect?" I asked with a grin.

I moved past him to a sink and rinsed out my mouth. I realised I hadn't thanked him. I turned around and he smiled, "thanks for helping me," I said, "I appreciate it, I didn't think I was gonna make it to the bathroom for a moment there." I smiled sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it, I know the feeling. I'm Matt by the way." he held out his hand and I shook it, his lopsided smile almost made me forget my own name.

"Laura." I said quietly.

He wrapped one arm around my waist and let me lean on him as we walked out of the bathroom and back over to our seats, I noticed he moved me a few seats closer to where he and the other woman sat, who I assumed was his mother. He gently sat me in the chair and then took his seat.

"Are you alright sweetheart?" the woman asked gently.

"Yeah I'm fine" I said. "Just a bit sick after the treatment, thanks again Matt."

"No problem." he smiled.

"I'm Sara by the way, Matt's mom." I smiled at her; she looked very well for having a teenage son.

"Hi I'm Laura." she smiled back. I heard the faint sound of heels walking fast down the corridor. Oh crap, here comes mother dearest, I thought. As she rounded the corner looking pissed as usual I stood up and went to walk over before she could come closer and make a scene, but another head rush hit me and I swayed. Matt stood up just in time to catch me and righted me once again. "You really are my knight in shining armour." I said with a smirk. He cracked a grin that had my heart beating faster.

"Laura!" my mother shouted impatiently. "Will you hurry the hell up? I have a date tonight and I'm not gonna be late because you wanna play damsel in distress! I hope you don't have to be sick because I am not pulling over every five minutes again!" I looked back at Matt, feeling embarrassed. He was glaring at my mom and tightened his hold on me.

"Is she not even gonna come and help you?" he said quietly, I could tell he was angry.

"She probably doesn't wanna chip a nail. Thanks for all your help Matt. hopefully I won't kick the bucket before I see you again." I embraced him in a one-armed hug and I never wanted to let go. But I had to. As I pulled away I gave his mom a smile, but she looked like it was taking everything in her to not sit me back down. I gave Matt one last smile before hurrying away on shaky legs. My mom was tapping her foot impatiently and as I reached her she grabbed my arm.

"Hurry up!" she shouted and hauled me down the corridor, I wanted to look back at Matt but I probably would have fallen on my face and that would have just made my mom even madder. I hoped I would see Matt again, something in me told me I needed to.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note:**** Hey! I decided to post chapter 2 and 3 today because they're both pretty short as i wanted to give a bit of background as to what Laura's life is like and how she's gonna tie in with the story, next week I'll be posting chapter 4 which will start into all the awesome movie stuff so things should get a bit more interesting. For now here is some background and if anyone feels like dropping me a review to let me know what they think I would greatly appreciate it! Btw I just wanna say thanks to my awesome Beta for her help with these chapters and to those who gave me some great support. Love you guys! **

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own (apologies for my awful spelling mistake in the last chapter, I do not know what I was thinking) any of the character, plotlines or dialogue from The Haunting In Connecticut, I ownly own my OC and anything you don't recognise from the movie.**

The ride home was not fun at all. I had to beg my mom to pull over twice so I could be sick, it was either that or I threw up on the seat so she didn't really have an option.

"What did I tell you about making me pull over?" she demanded as I sat back in the car.

"I don't wanna be sick but I have to! Do you really think I want to be sick and have cancer?!"

"Yeah I do!" I gawked at her, "You love all the attention you get so don't try and act like you aren't enjoying being the poor little sick girl." She snapped.

"What attention?" I demanded. I got no attention from this woman, what the hell was she talking about?

"At the hospital, with your fake little fainting spell. You only did that so that boy would come to the rescue, don't lie to me."

"For you information that guy was very nice to me and helped me when I was sick, which is what you should be doing!" I was so mad at her; she really thought I wanted to be sick?

"I do my part, alright? I work, pay the bills and you get your treatments. What do you want me to do? Tuck you in every night and pick up after you all the time? I have better things to do!"

"Yeah like random guys in bars," I mumbled.

"What was that?" she snapped.

"Nothing," I replied tiredly.

"Right. So I'm gonna drop you off and you can go home and start on the housework. The dishes need done, the beds need made, the laundry needs washed and hung out to dry and then I want you to make something to eat for me coming home later, I get a bit hungry after a night out." Yeah, I know, it didn't matter if she came in at three in the morning and I had only just gotten to sleep because of my sore joints, she would shout until I woke up.

"Fine," I replied, there was no use arguing with the woman.

She dropped me off and sped off without as much as a 'see you later' or a 'bye sweetie'. I went inside and got started, the sooner I finished the sooner I got to sleep. You would think she'd find time while I was at the hospital to do some of these things - but no. I had to do them, apparently I should "think of it as paying her back for ruining her life", some kids were bribed with pocket money or sweets whilst I was told that any time I complained.

It wasn't my fault that my dad was an asshole who couldn't stand having a dying child with cancer. I was just a kid when we found out and at first it was like someone had hit pause on my parents, they wouldn't do anything for hours. They couldn't even look at me, I thought I'd done something wrong so I went to my room and decided to stay there until they forgave me. Then the shouting started. I didn't know what the half of it was about but soon enough I heard my dad storm upstairs and into my parents' room. He came out a while later and went downstairs before slamming the front door and I went to the window. He loaded a few bags into the trunk of his car and then got in and sped off without a backwards glance. I walked downstairs to find my mother crying at the table:

_"Mom?" I asked quietly, "Where did Daddy go?"_

_She raised her head and looked at me with teary eyes. "He left." She said, in a monotone voice._

_"Why?" I asked, bewildered._

_"Because you have cancer and he doesn't wanna stay with us anymore." Her voice shook and tears kept on streaming. I walked over and put my hands around her neck. _

_"I'm sorry," I said. Was my fault that he left?_

_"It's okay sweetie," She said gently and hugged me back, "It's not your fault you ruined my life."_

Apparently after a few weeks and a couple of late night drinking binges she concluded that it was in fact my fault. Had I not gotten sick she would still have a husband. Plain and simple, I ruined her life. She could never see that the cancer had done that all by itself. She never stopped to think how much it ruined my life as well. From then on I couldn't play with the kids in the neighbourhood for fear I would get sick. I had to have a tutor come to my house because I couldn't go to school. I didn't have any friends and more or less kept to myself. Ever since we found out I had cancer we have become less and less like mother and daughter. I don't come to her with any problems; she doesn't tease me about boys or take me shopping. She doesn't hug me or tell me I'm beautiful, it's been years since I've gotten a compliment. Sometimes it feels like I'm already dead, like she's already acting like I'm gone as much as she can, I tell myself it's so that when I do pass on it won't hurt as much. But I know this is a lie.

I slouched up the stairs to bed once I've forced myself to eat some food and flop down on my bed, still in my clothes. I groan when I realise the curtains are still open and the bright sunset streams through my window. As I get up to close it I gaze at the Aickman house across the street. It has always given me the creeps, when I was little I could never sleep with the curtains open because my room was in plain view of the house; it always felt like someone was watching me, even though no one has lived there in a long time.

The history of the house isn't for the faint-hearted, some say it was a funeral home and that some strange shit happened there. When I was younger and would go tick-or-treating with the neighbourhood kids we would always dare each other to step inside, but no one ever took the bait. Even from a young age we all knew there was something wrong with that house. I can tell from looking at it that something horrible happened inside. It's like the feeling you get when you've stood in the spot where an accident was or looked over to a spot on the road that's covered in flowers where someone was hit. That that place will be forever tainted with what happened, no matter how long goes on you still feel weird looking at it. A shiver ran up my spine and I hastily shut the curtains and lay down, turning away from the window so I wouldn't have to see the house.

I feel sorry for whatever unsuspecting family decides to live there next.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: ****Here is chapter 3, hope you enjoy! Sorry it's quite short I just wanted to put it in before all the action starts in chapter again to my Beta and feel free to leave a review!**

******Disclaimer: I do not own (apologies for my awful spelling mistake in the last chapter, I do not know what I was thinking) any of the character, plotlines or dialogue from The Haunting In Connecticut, I ownly own my OC and anything you don't recognise from the movie. **

As I came for my next appointment of chemo I noticed Matt was already hooked up and staring into space in front of him. I started walking over to the free space beside him and he looked up at me and smiled. Damn his smiles are nice. "Mind if I sit here?" I asked with a smile, I didn't exactly wanna assume he wanted to sit with me.

"Yeah, of course." He patted the chair next to him and I sat down. Once I was all hooked up to the machine, I turned and saw him watching me - my heart gave a little flutter - but then I realised he was looking at me sympathetically. Ugh, great.

"Okay, spit it out." I said casually, may as well get it over with, I knew what he was thinking.

"What?" he asked, feigning innocence.

"That," I said, pointing to his face. "The look of sympathy, I can't stand it. So spit it out and let's get it over with." I tapped the end of his nose and I could see a little bit of amusement on his face, but it went serious soon afterwards.

"Your mom wasn't that nice the other day. Has she always been so mean to you?"

"No, just since my dad left," I admitted.

"Why did he leave?" he asked, some would find his curiosity annoying but I was kinda relieved he was asking me to my face and not talking behind my back with a nurse or something.

"We found out I had cancer and he bailed," I said with a shrug. It used to bother me that he left but now I don't care. If he couldn't take it… that was his problem.

"So she got mad at you and is treating you like shit because your dad was an asshole?" he said, apparently shocked.

"Well yeah, I mean, if I didn't have cancer he'd probably still be here, but I do so he's not, she sees it that I've ruined things by having cancer." I explained.

"But you didn't ask for it! No one here asked for it!" he argued, why was he getting so upset?

"I know but she still sees it that way, and I've given up on trying to change her mind." He didn't look pleased.

"Doesn't it bother you?" he asked. I thought for a moment, it actually really did. I just sat back and took it but it still hurt to be treated this way.

"Yeah it does, I hate sympathy but this is different. She just expects me to able to be normal and cook and clean but I can't do it, as much as I wanna go back to normal I'm not normal. She complains that I'm lazy and I use all her money and spare time. Sometimes I just think it would be easier if I died soon and she could get on with her life, I feel like she'd be happy if I wasn't there. I'm just a burden to her." He put his hand on my shoulder and waited till I looked at him.

"You're not a burden," He said in a strong voice, his green eyes looked deep into mine. And I believed him. A few minutes later and I was tired of the depressing talk.

"Alright enough of this doom and gloom shit, this place is already depressing enough, wanna play twenty questions?" I asked. Anything to stop talking about my mom.

"Sure," He said with another amazing smile.

For the rest of his time in chemo we played twenty questions. We found out lots of random crap about each other and had a few laughs, I actually felt normal again. Then he mentioned that he had qualified for a new study that could make him better if it works, I was pleased. He was one of those guys that you knew he would do something good one day, this was just a steep hurdle he had to overcome, but I could tell he would be fine. Me, on the other hand, I've been struggling against cancer for almost half my life, the doctors may not know it yet but I'm not coming out the other side. I know it. I've made my peace with it. Soon he was unhooked and free to leave but I still had a bit to go.

"Do you want me to wait with you until your mom comes?" he asked, bless him.

"No I'm fine, I have a bit of time left, I'll just sit and ponder all the new stuff I know about Matt Campbell and all the possible blackmail I can use this information for." I winked, I winked?! I have never winked in my life.

"Oh God no!" he groaned but laughed; "I don't know when I'll see you again because they'll have me in and out for different treatments for the program but I don't know when they'll be fitting chemo in." He looked disappointed. I reached over and laid my hand on his.

"I'm sure we'll meet again, Campbell." I smiled.

He smiled and got up to leave, my heart kinda sank a bit but he leaned down and kissed me gently on my forehead, then my heart had no problem jumping right up into my throat. I smiled at him and he walked away, looking back once or twice and I stuck my tongue out each time he did. He grinned and then he was out of sight. I relaxed back into the chair and I found myself smiling for several minutes after he left. It felt weird, but a nice weird. Like I wanted to see him again and I knew that when I did he'd make me smile again, suddenly being here didn't seem so bad because I got to see Matt.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note:Hey guys! Here is chapter 4 of FBOW, I decided to update a few days early because I wanna start into all the movie action. So it is and I hope you enjoy! feel free to review! Once again thanks to my awesome Beta and to everyone who has followed the story and to those who left a review, I really appreciate it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, plotlines, dialogue or settings from The Haunting In Connecticut movie, I only own my OCs and anything you don't recognise from the movie.**

**Chapter 4:**

Over the next few days I didn't see Matt that much because of his new treatment. I was kinda sad because it was nice having someone my age to talk to. I was getting really tired of my mom as well, these past few days I had to restrain myself from screaming at her more so than I usually do, I didn't really know why. On some level I think it's because of Matt, when we talked the other day I realised that just because I'm used to her treating me like crap doesn't mean she should get away with it. When I finished my latest chemo treatment I went back to the waiting room to wait on her. I waited… and waited… and waited. Where the hell was she?

I must have been waiting for about two hours when I had finally had enough, I decided to just walk. It was obvious she wasn't gonna come lift me and if I left it any later she might even be pissed I wasn't home to cook dinner. So I decided to take it slow and start walking. I have a feeling this won't end well…

What do you know? I was right! I'm about ten minutes from my house and I feel like I'm gonna collapse. My throat is dryer than the Sahara and my joints are aching really badly. I actually have to fight to keep my eyes open and my legs moving, both feel like they're gonna give out of me any second. I need to sit down. I dropped slowly to the pavement and rested my legs, I could see my house from where I sat but I didn't think I could make it without a rest. Then I heard something that confused the hell out of me, noise coming from the Aickman house. I looked up and sure enough it looked like there were people moving in. I didn't wanna be nosey but I felt bad for them, I wouldn't go near that house with a ten-foot pole. I watched as two guys were unloading stuff from a rather nice truck. One of the guys lifted a lamp and a box from the bed of the truck and I heard the other shout.

"Watch it!" he must really like that truck. They talked for a few seconds and the guy holding the furniture turned to walk back into the house before his eyes caught mine. Oh my God, it's Matt! His face broke into a wide smile and he set down the furniture before coming over to me. I stood up unsteadily from the pavement and went over to meet him, not too gracefully, mind you. I kind of stumbled at the last minute and he grabbed my arms, I felt like shit but I couldn't help but smile. Only now out in the sun could I really see him, his eyes were a nice green and his hair was actually a light brown rather than blonde, damn those hospital lights!

"Whoah," he said gently "you alright?"

"Yeah fine I'm just glad to see you." I smiled.

"What were you doing on the pavement?" he asked, confused.

Oh, that. "I was just talking a rest from my walk, I just felt a bit tired. My house is just over there." I pointed to the house just opposite his and down one. He seemed pleased at first then he looked back at where I was sitting.

"You must have been pretty tired since you didn't feel like you could make it to the house, where did you walk from?"

"The hospital, my mom didn't come to pick me up after my treatment for ages so I decided to just walk."

He looked back at me, his eyes blazing with anger. "She made you walk the entire way here?" he demanded.

"Yeah but it's fine." I said, trying to sound reassuring but he shook his head.

"No it's not. Come inside and we'll get you a glass of water or something, you look thirsty."

"N-no I'm fine really." I insisted, glancing fearfully at the house. I was about to start walking away but he wrapped one arm around my waist and started leading me towards the house gently. Damn him and his cute chivalry!

We walked past the other guy who had picked up the furniture Matt left and he looked confused but smiled politely before following us in. I sat down in the kitchen and Matt handed me a glass of water, just then Sara came into the kitchen and smiled when she spotted me.

"Laura! What are you doing here?" she looked at Matt who inclined his head towards the hall and she nodded before going out into the hall. Matt patted my hand and gave me a smile before going out and joining her. I didn't wanna eavesdrop (even though I knew they were talking about me) so I focused on drinking the water and I went over to the sink and rinsed out a glass before they came and joined me again.

"Laura?" Sara said gently, "can come with me to your house? I wanna talk to your mom." Oh, no.

"What about?" I asked confused.

"I just wanna discuss something with her, Matt's coming too." I had a bad feeling but Matt held out his hand and I took it. We walked across to my house just as my mom was coming out of the house looking like she was going to a bar.

"There you are!" she shouted, annoyed. "What the hell took you so long? You were supposed to make dinner."

Sara walked forward, "She was at our house because she was so tired after walking all the way from the hospital. You should have picked her up, she shouldn't have to walk." She spoke sternly.

"She's not a little kid she can walk home by herself!" my mom shot back, glaring at Sara and I. Matt tightened his hold on my hand.

"That's not the point! She has cancer; she's not supposed to walk this far on her own!"

"Well I'm sick of her having to get special treatment all the time because of the cancer. She's had it for years and I'm sick of it. I didn't ask for a sick child." She spat. I shrunk into Matt's side; he wrapped an arm around me.

"She didn't ask to be sick! Neither did my son, what kind of a mother are you if you make your child feel guilty because she has cancer?" Go Sara!

"Hey, I'm not gonna stand here and listen to this shit, Laura get inside," I stood there frozen, unsure of what to do. "NOW!" she shouted and I flinched, reluctantly getting free of Matt's grasp and walking forwards but Sara caught my arm and held me back. My mom glared at her before turning to me.

"Laura I swear if you don't get your ass in that house right now you will be packing your things and you won't be coming back." I was torn, I didn't wanna take any more of her but where was I gonna go?

"She can stay with us." Sara said, I stared at her in disbelief. My mom looked a bit surprised too but her expression became cold a second later.

"Fine, she can pack her stuff and get the hell out of my house, she won't be missed." She sneered and stormed to her car before speeding off. When I couldn't see the car anymore I turned to Sara.

"I can't stay with you. You guys already have enough to deal with without me. I couldn't impose on you like this." I tried to reason with her but her eyes had the same fire as Matt's had earlier.

"Nonsense, you are coming to stay with us and that's final." She gave me a hug before turning to Matt, who looked really happy. "Matt? Go help Laura pack her things, I'll have Peter come over soon and help you guys take stuff over. She'll be staying in the basement with you because nowhere else has enough room for two. Is that okay Laura? " Was she kidding? Of course it w- oh shit, a basement? That doesn't sound good. But I'll still be out of my house plus I'll have Matt to talk to. I nodded and she smiled at me again before walking off. I turned to Matt and he hugged me, I had a tough time keeping the tears away.

"It's gonna be alright now." He whispered into my hair. He stepped away but grabbed my hand and took me into the house; we went upstairs and packed up all my stuff. I didn't have much to pack, just some clothes and books and my drawings. I sketched a lot in my spare time and had gotten quite good at it. I was just closing my bag when I saw Matt go over to the wall with all my sketches on it and admire them. Somewhere of random things around the house, others were of outside in the different seasons. He turned to me with another amazing smile.

"These are really good." He said.

"Thanks," I blushed, "I just sketch in my spare time." He carefully took them off the wall and put them in a bag. Soon his dad, or Peter as he insisted on being called, came over and helped us take everything over, we even took my bed and my desk. Hey, they were mine after all.

We had just finished setting the beds down in the basement, which was very creepy by the way. I looked around nervously but Matt seemed pretty at ease. Peter looked around the room.

"Well it's a little dark but hey I was a teenager once. What's in there?" he looked towards some old doors at one end of the room. They had weird glass in the windows that made it impossible to see what was on the other side. I gave an involuntary shiver; I had a bad feeling about them.

"I don't know. I couldn't open it." Matt said from his bed. Peter went over and tried to open them but it looked like they were locked.

"The knob turns but..." he grunted as he tried to push it open, Matt and I both looked confused and he finally gave up. "Maybe they sealed it for storage." What they wanted to store in there, I could do without knowing.

He went upstairs and it was just me and Matt. He stood and gestured to the room.

"So what do you think?" he asked with a smile on his face.

"Honestly? It's a little creepy," I said with an uneasy laugh, he nodded in agreement. "But pretty cool." I added, not wanting to seem ungrateful, he smiled wider.

I looked at the doors again and got an eerie feeling, I decided to distract myself and unpack my stuff. Matt came over and took my sketches out carefully with some tape and started sticking them to the wall in between our beds, I watched him after a while as he stood back to admire his handiwork.

"Very nice display if I do say so myself." I giggled, he turned and laughed.

"Maybe you could do some more of around the house and we can add to it?" he asked.

"Sure." I smiled. He led me on a tour of the house and I met the rest of the family. Mary and Billy were really nice, very well behaved and Mary was so cute. Wendy was nice too and I liked her room although the birds on the wall were a bit weird. We walked around for a while talking about this and that before we decided to go down to the basement. When we got down Sara was mopping the floor.

"I still don't know why you wanna stay down here." She said disapprovingly, so I wasn't the only one that found it odd he picked this room. He smiled before walking over and trying to see though the glass of the doors. I didn't wanna see but curiosity got the better of me. We stood trying to see for a few seconds before he stood up and turned to his mom.

"Whoah! Mom" he said in a panicked voice, I whipped my head around and the water she had been mopping the floor with had turned red. It was blood.

"What?" she asked, oblivious. She continued spreading the blood around and my stomach heaved. She stopped moping and looked at us concerned. "Are you okay?" she asked.

I nodded, not trusting my voice.

"Yeah just thanks for cleaning our room." She smiled and Matt and I shared a look, he had seen it too. I didn't wanna mention anything in front of Sara so I guess I'll talk to him later. We all went upstairs to get dinner ready, despite Sara telling me I didn't need to help I felt guilty and said I wanted to do something. So I was pouring juice into glasses whilst she was making scrambled egg and Matt was getting the dishes out of the cupboard. Suddenly I heard a sound coming from upstairs, was that a bird flapping its wings? Matt was looking towards the sound as well and he sat the cutlery down on the table, he looked at the table confused and then back to the cupboard he had taken the plates out of. They were all back in the cupboard.

"Why'd you put the plates back?" he asked.

"What?" Sara turned around and he looked back and forth between the two of us.

"Well I put the plates out and now they're… back." He said hesitantly.

"I didn't touch them sweetheart." Sara said gently.

"Me neither." I added.

"Are you alright?" she asked him, worried. He nodded uneasily and she gave an unsure smile before going back to the eggs. He turned towards the cupboard as I watched him but I had only just blinked and the plates came out of nowhere and crashed onto the floor. We all jumped and then reached down to pick up the shards.

"Oh! Oh that's… no that was my fault. I shouldn't have… they were too heavy." She tried to make him feel better but I could have sworn they moved on their own.

"No, it's okay. I didn't drop them." Matt said.

"Well, how did they get on-"she started to ask, confused.

"I don't know! I saw them up there and I just… I don't know." Matt stood up and spoke frantically, trying to find out how it happened.

"You know, Dr Brooks said-"she began but he cut her off.

"I know what Dr Brook said okay? He said that if I'm seeing things then he'll drop me from the trial."

"But if you-"she began but he cut her off again.

"I'm not seeing things. I'm just… tired and I remember I put the dishes too close to the edge so..." I knew he was lying but I knew this trial meant a lot to him, he couldn't afford to lose out on the treatment.

Sara tried to reason with him. "You know, you tell me if something like that happens. Promise?" she asked.

"Yeah I promise. I'm so sorry I broke the dishes." Matt said quietly, I felt so bad for him.

"It's okay, sweetie." She assured him before going out of the room to search for the dustpan. I bent down again to pick up some more shards.

"You don't have to do that," Matt said, getting down to help me, "I broke them so I should clean up." I put my hand on his arm and he looked at me, I stared right into his eyes and resisted the urge to blush.

"I know you didn't do it." I said quietly, his eyes widened.

"Did you see them fall?" he asked, hope in his eyes.

"No I blinked and they were on the floor out of nowhere. I heard that noise upstairs and I know you had out the plates on the table to when they went back in the cupboard I knew something was up. So you're not seeing things, I saw it too." I assured him; he sighed in relief and took my hand in his.

"Thank you." He said sincerely. I smiled and was pleased when he smiled back. We both managed to clear up the big shards and I got the dustpan off Sara when she came back in. Soon the plate incident was forgotten and we went out the back. Peter chased Mary and Billy around the yard before running over to the burgers hoping they weren't cremated by now. I sat a few steps below Matt and sketched the lattice beside me with some nice leaves growing on it. I was in a little world of my own, until Peter broke my trance as he talked to Matt.

"Remember when we used to go camping when you were young? Every night you would fall asleep counting the stars and you could never finish. Used to drive you nuts." He chuckled and I looked at Matt who had a sad expression on his face.

"You know that most of the stars we see are already dead?" he asked in a dead tone, I looked at him sympathetically.

"They look pretty alive to me." Peter said.

"That's 'cause they haven't gotten the news yet." Matt replied before getting up and walking inside, Peter watched after him with a guilty expression and then smiled at me.

"Did you go camping much?" he asked.

"When I was younger my friends and I would but not really after I found out I was sick." I hesitated before continuing, "I wanna thank you for letting me stay Peter, I really appreciate you taking me in even though we're not family and you could be doing without the added expense."

"Don't worry about a thing sweetie; we're glad to have you. It'll be good for Matt having someone around that knows how he feels." He said with a smile. I smiled back but couldn't help but think that of all the things you could have in common with a guy, cancer wasn't the best. But I forgot about it after a while and just enjoyed how much my life had improved in just a few hours.

I walked down to the basement with Matt to get ready for bed, this was kinda awkward. I have never shared a room with anyone; we both got our pyjamas and then went to walk to the bathroom at the same time. We both stopped short and laughed before he gestured for me to go first.

"Ladies first," He said with a smile. Can he be any more chivalrous?

"Thanks." I smiled and went in to get changed. I only had a tank top and some shorts; I didn't really wear a lot to bed in the summer. I changed and went to the mirror to brush my hair. I looked at my reflection and sighed, I wasn't exactly beautiful. I had dark brown hair that curls loosely down my back when I leave it down. I had brown eyes but with some shadows under them, this seemed to make them look darker than they were. I was really skinny but not in a great way, more like I look like I haven't eaten in weeks. I washed my pale skin and just as I looked into the mirror to see if I had gotten all the suds off I jumped. There was a charred figure standing behind me, he was a little taller than me and was looking at me in the mirror. He was making a sounds that was somewhere between a growl and a cough and I slowly turned around to look at him properly. He was gone. I looked back at my reflection and there was no one there. Weird.

I walked back into the bedroom and Matt went into the bathroom after me, I noticed when he came out he didn't look any different so I assumed he hadn't seen the guy, maybe it was just me. Matt came back in and went over to his bed and lay down.

"Night, Laura." He said quietly.

"Night, Matt." I replied a few seconds later, I hoped I didn't sound too freaked-out.

A while later I went to sleep but all of a sudden I could feel myself sitting up and when I opened my eyes I was sitting up in bed, I was about to lie back down when I noticed there were lights on in the room across from us, behind the doors. I could faintly see two men in the room, they were both looking down and focusing on something in front of them and suddenly the one facing me and matt looked up, first at Matt and then at me. When he looked at me I could feel ice going down my spine, he looked at me for a second and then down again. I watched him for a few seconds but his head remained down. Then I blinked and the doors were dark again, you couldn't see a thing behind them. I looked over at Matt and he was staring at me with wide eyes. I got up and walked slowly over to his bed and sat down on the edge.

"What did you see?" I asked him.

He breathed deeply for a few seconds before answering. "I woke up and I was sitting up in bed and there were two guys in that room. One of them looked at me... and it was like... I was him, seeing things through his eyes. I could see the other guy carving these weird symbols into the skin of this person lying on a table, I think they were dead." He gulped, "and then he took a pair of scissors and cut one of the eyelids off. And that's all, I blinked and I was back in my body and you were sitting up. Did you see it too?" he asked in a small voice.

"I woke up and I was sitting up too and I could see the two guys. One of them looked at you and then at me but I didn't go anywhere, I just stayed staring at him for a few seconds and then I blinked and he was gone. I looked over and you were sitting up. Are you alright?" I asked he looked a little freaked out.

"Yeah it's just... it was really weird." He admitted quietly.

"I know, some strange shit is going on in this house, and I think some even stranger stuff happened in that room." He looked at me and then got slowly out of bed and started walking towards the doors.

I got up quickly and grabbed his hand to stop him. "No Matt!" I begged in a whisper.

"It's alright." He whispered back and started walking again, he kept hold of my hand and I walked quietly after him. He reached out for the doorknob and there was a sizzling sound as he jerked his hand back.

"AH!" he exclaimed. I took his wrist with my free hand and examined what looked like a serious burn. It was already starting to blister.

"Come on." I said gently and tugged him towards the bathroom. I wet a facecloth and gently laid it over his hand. He sat on the toilet and I kneeled in front of him to make sure there was no dirt or rust on the burn. When I looked up he was watching me and I tried to smile but couldn't manage it. In the end I took his other hand in mine and gave it a reassuring squeeze and he held it tightly. He leant his forehead against mine and we stayed like that for a few minutes, of course I had to ruin it by yawning.

He chuckled, "Come on, let's get back to bed." He helped me up by the hand and held it on the way back to his room. I took him back over to his bed and helped him with the sheets so he wouldn't have to use his injured hand. When I was done I looked at him and smiled before leaning down and quickly kissing his forehead and then going back over to my bed. I went to sleep on my side so I could watch Matt and make sure he would be alright. Soon my eyelids drooped and I fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's note: Hey everyone, here is Chapter 5! I would like to thank my Beta again for all her help with this chapter and everyone who gave me support as I wrote this, love you guys! I'm glad so many people are reading this, it really makes my day :) I'd also like some more reviews if you guys don't mind just to see if people are liking it well enough, if you could leave one and let me know what you think I'd really appreciate it!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from The Haunting In Connecticut, if I did that would just be amazing but unfortunately I only own Laura and anything you don't recognise from the movie.**

The next morning Matt, Sara and I headed to the hospital pretty early. I had to get more chemo and Matt and Sara had to meet Dr Brooks to review his progress. I sat in the chair and thought about the night before, how the hell did that happen? First I see a guy that looks like Freddy Kruger; then Matt has an out-of-body experience with a guy and sees some dead body get messed with and then he burns his hand on a doorknob. A doorknob for crying out loud! His hand still looked pretty bad today but he had brushed off any concern, saying he was alright. I just wondered how he was gonna explain the burn.

"Hello Laura." A gentle voice said beside me. I turned and saw Reverend Popescu sitting beside me with a nice smile. He was a real nice guy, we would talk sometimes when we had treatment together and I enjoyed our conversations. He knew I wasn't the holy type; I've not really been to church a lot since I was little, but he never tried to initiate me into a cult or anything which I appreciated. He had a way of looking at things, like every bad thing happens for a good reason that I really admired.

"Hi Reverend," I replied with a small smile. "How are you?"

"Not too good my dear, not too good," He said with a sad smile. "How are you?" he asked, he had always been concerned for me ever since he found out what my mom was like.

"I'm great actually, I moved out." He looked surprised but happy, I continued with a smile, "A new family moved into a house on my street and I had met their son Matt a few times while I was in for my treatment and they took me in so I'm living with them now."

"That's great, do you like living with them?"

I hesitated, I felt like I could tell Popescu but I didn't wanna risk him thinking I was insane and trying to perform and exorcism, so I kept upbeat. "Yeah I really do, their son is around my age and we get on really well, there are other kids in the house too so I have plenty of company and the parents are really nice."

"I'm glad my dear, it's about time the Lord gave you a break." He said. _Hell yeah_, I thought.

We continued to make small talk until I was finished and I went out to the waiting room where Sara was waiting for Matt to finish his treatment. When he came back he was very weak and we had to help him to the car. I sat in the back with him and held his hand to reassure him. We did have to pull over so I could be sick, but only once. Sara had to practically tie Matt to the car to stop him from coming over to see if I was alright. When we got back to the house Sara and I helped Matt up to the porch.

"Careful. Watch your step. Okay, you're almost there." She encouraged him. As we reached the porch he sighed in relief.

"Thank you." He breathed.

"Okay I forgot my purse, honey okay? I'll be right back. Just wait right here guys, alright?" I nodded as she headed back down the steps.

"Okay." Matt breathed and reached out to lean on a pillar. I gasped as his hand went through and came out covered in guts and body parts. I walked over and looked closer, I could see the maggots moving around in his hand and my stomach convulsed and I ran inside and downstairs to throw up. When I was done I sat on the floor of the bathroom, breathing heavy. Matt came in a few minutes later and looked at me on the floor sympathetically.

"Did you see that?" he asked, I nodded meekly, not trusting my voice. "I saw it too but the pillar is fine, it's solid and there's nothing on my hand." I got up and went over to look and sure enough his hand was dry and empty, no guts. I slowly traced the lines of his hands and looked up into his eyes.

"What did the doctor say about your other hand?" I asked suddenly.

"Non-contact dermatitis caused by the treatment." He replied smoothly, I nodded, still tracing along his hand.

"Did you say anything about what we've seen?" I asked in a low voice. He shook his head.

"No." I nodded and walked into the bedroom; he followed me in and sat on my bed. I looked at him, unsure of what to say, do we talk about what happened? After a few seconds I gave up and lay down with a sigh, he joined me and we lay side by side, not talking for what seemed like ages. Finally he rolled onto his elbow and looked at me, "You doing okay after the treatment?" he asked and I momentarily got lost in his eyes before he raised an eyebrow and I remembered what he asked.

"Yeah it was just… your hand… I just got a little freaked out and the chemo certainly didn't help so I just felt sick. I'm fine now though." I said in what I hoped was a convincing manner, I looked away but he kept looking at my face. I looked back expecting to see a sceptical expression, telling me that I was full of shit and that I wasn't fine. Instead he was just looking at me intently, his eyes straying over my features and up to my hair, he reached up and brushed a curl off my face and didn't move his hand. He traced down the side of my face to my chin and titled in towards him, leaning in. Oh God this is about to be my first kiss ever. I didn't even have time to question it, I just leaned towards him and our lips were just about to touch.

"Matt, Laura!" Sara shouted from the top of the stairs, we jerked away from each other but she couldn't see us, still it had scared the crap out of me. "Do you want anything to eat or drink?"

"No thanks!" we shouted in unison and went back to staring at each other, although the tension wasn't as thick as before. I gave a sheepish smile and he returned it before lying back down on the bed beside me. I tried to even out my breathing and hide my disappointment at the interruption. We stayed like that for another while and then my stomach growled, I guess I was hungry. Matt chuckled and got off the bed before offering me his hand to help me get up. I took it and stood and he wrapped his arm around my waist.

"Come on, let's get you fed." He chuckled.

"Thanks." I smiled, a bit embarrassed, I would have rather kissed him but food sounds good right about now. Matt made us some pancakes and I put on a pot of coffee because I was feeling a bit tired and we sat down to eat. It was a little awkward considering we were on the verge of making out not ten minutes before but soon Billy, Mary and Wendy came down to join us. Wendy sat glancing back and forth between me and Matt and I looked at her, confused. A sly grin appeared on her face and I knew she had sense what was going on. Oh crap, act natural! I tried to look nonchalant but while I was looking around the kitchen I caught Matt's gaze and he gave me one of those smiles that I can't resist. I smiled and blushed before looking down. When I looked up Wendy had an eyebrow raised and was smirking. Oh, shit. I tried to find some distraction so I took my plate and cup out from the dining room and into the kitchen, I was happy to spend a few minutes in here until I could escape down to the basement quietly.

"So… you and Matt?" she said from about two feet behind me, I gasped and whirled around, the woman is as silent as the grave! She had her arms folded over her chest and her eyebrow raised again, this was not good.

"What! No, no, no there is no me and Matt. Why on earth would you think that?" I asked in what was probably the least convincing manner ever, I sounded like I was trying to cover up my involvement in a murder or something.

"Oh come on you know I know! The looks you two give each other are like out of some cheesy rom-com movie! And you can't even look at him anymore without blushing! So spill!" she demanded.

I sighed, "Well we kind of were almost gonna kiss when we came back but Sara interrupted so I was blushing because we had nearly kissed."

"Ugh boring." She groaned, "I was expecting something a bit more romantic!"

"Then go read a romance novel! You're not getting any juicy details about what I do with _your cousin_ from me." I said, laughing. I stopped when she got a look on her face that told me I was in trouble.

"Well if you won't tell me, maybe I should go ask Matt." And she made her way to the door before I tackled her in a desperate attempt to stop her. We were both laughing and I was sort of sitting on top of her, so you can kind of guess how awkward things got when Matt walked into the kitchen.

"Whoah, uh… What are you doing?" He said with raised eyebrows. He looked at us a bit amused.

"Oh I um, I kind of tackled Wendy because she said… Stand By Me was a bad film!" I cringed at my excuse, I loved the movie but I would never tackle someone over not liking it.

"O… kay." He smiled and stood there before slowly walking back to the dining room where Billy and Mary were. As soon as we were sure he was out of earshot we started laughing and I climbed off her

"For the record I love Stand By Me." She said, laughing "Was that really all you could think of?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't think of telling him that I had to tackle his cousin like a line-backer because she is insistent on finding it about our love life." I laughed but smacked my hands over my mouth when I saw her smile of triumph.

"So you do have a love life!" she exclaimed.

"Shhhhhh! Yes okay fine maybe something will happen, we don't know but until then you are not to say anything. No hints, secret looks or anything around me and Matt, or I will shave your head while you sleep." I ordered. She clutched her scalp.

"Okay, okay! Just don't hurt my hair!" She begged and I laughed.

Matt and I didn't speak about the almost-kiss, I was kind of glad. Not that I didn't wanna kiss him but I wasn't used to feeling this way about someone. That night we got into our beds and I went to sleep quite quickly. But it didn't last long. I opened my eyes and looked over at Matt who looked like he had just woken up too, he looked at me and we stared at each other for a few seconds before we heard a sound and jerked our heads around to look at the doors. They were opening. We both got out of bed and stood side by side, I looked at him and he took my hand before we walked into the room together.

It looked like something from a nightmare, one of those creepy rooms that you see in horror movie, I was just waiting for a mad scientist to appear from somewhere. There was a table in the middle of the room big enough to fit a person on. Bottles and utensils lay around the room, some had cobwebs on them. I slowly walked around and looked at everything. My eyes settled on a cremator at the back of the room and I walked over to look at it, the closer I got the worse I felt. I reached out a hand to touch it and as my fingers came in contact with the metal a jolt of electricity ran up my arm. In that same instant a scream pierced my ears and I clapped my hands over them, it felt like it had burst my eardrums. It was a desperate scream, filled with terror, my eyes began to water and I crouched on the floor. I could almost _feel_ the pain that caused that scream. I slowly got up and looked over at Matt who was staring at me with an unreadable expression on his face. Most of the time, I felt comforted when he looked at me, now I didn't feel so safe. I stared back, not knowing what to do, until he finally broke the stare and started walking around the room. I made sure to keep my distance, something about him felt off, like he wasn't himself. I walked around a bit more and realised I had seen the inside of this room the other night in my dream, how was that possible. I didn't realise that I stopped walking until Matt touched my arm; I gave a small yelp and turned around to face him. His face was inches from mine and his eyes looked strange, glazed-over like he was still half asleep.

"Do you know what this place was?" he asked in a low voice.

"I had heard it was a funeral home, but I didn't know for sure." I said, damn my stupid voice for shaking so bad.

"Do you know what happened here?" he asked.

"No… but I have a feeling whatever happened wasn't good." I said and slowly pulled my arm from his grasp. He stayed in the spot for a few more minutes and eventually we both made our way around the room again. By the time the sky started to get lighter I had every detail imprinted in my mind, something about the room drew me in, but for all the wrong reasons.

Before I knew it, it was the next morning and billy came down to the basement in search of Matt and I.

"Matt? Laura? Where are you?" he asked, standing in the middle of our bedroom.

"We're in here." Matt answered from beside me.

Billy walked in and surveyed the room with a hint of wonder in his eyes.

"Whoah," he said, impressed, "How did you guys get in here?" Matt didn't seem like he was going to answer and I wasn't about to tell a little kid it opened by itself in the middle of the night.

"I uh tried opening it again this morning and we eventually got it open!" I lied, he looked around the room.

"What is this place?" he said, going over to a table and picking up one of the tools to investigate. Matt leaned on the table in the middle of the room and it sifted to the side, giving out an eerier squeak as it turned. Billy set the tool down and turned.

"Hop on..." Matt said in a tone I didn't like, it seemed like he was still acting weird. "Take you for a ride." He said to Billy and started to turn the table, turning it faster each time.

"Slow down!" Billy begged but Matt wouldn't stop, I stepped forward to stop him but as the table turned more and more I could see flashes. It looked like two guys were lifting a body from a coffin and setting something inside to replace the body. The flashes continued and Billy starting shouting.

"Matt! Matt! Laura! Stop! Let me off!" I eventually had enough and grabbed Matt's arm to try and bring him back to reality. He stopped turning the table and Billy sat up just as Peter came down.

"What's going on down here?" Peter asked.

"What's wrong with you?" Billy asked in a low voice as he looked fearfully at Matt. I kept my hand on his arm and gave it a sympathetic squeeze; I could tell he wasn't himself.

"I guess I must have loosened it." Peter said, obviously pleased with himself. I watched as he looked up and it clicked as to what the room was. He walked around and looked at everything.

"Good Lord!" he said as he picked up a tool that looked like it was designed to cut flesh or something. "Now we know why the rent was so cheap." He added in a quiet voice. He went upstairs and Billy followed him, I realised I was still holding onto Matt's arm and I let go in case he was still feeling weird but when he turned his eyes on me they seemed like they were back to normal.

"Did you see that?" He asked, inclining his head to the table, he meant the flashes.

"Yes," I answered, trying not to let my voice shake, "I saw flashes of what looked like two guys take a body from a coffin and replace it with some bags or something."

"Sandbags," he said, "They weigh enough that if you put a bunch of them in a coffin so you think there would still be a body inside."

"Do you think it was the same two guys we saw the other night?" I asked. I couldn't make them out too well when I was seeing it.

"I think so. You said last night that you heard this was a funeral home? Why didn't you say anything before?" he asked and I looked down, feeling bad I didn't tell him. He lifted my chin and looked into my eyes. "I'm not mad, I just wanna know if you know anything about what happened here?"

"I know and I should have told you only I never knew for sure. When I was little I thought it was just a scary story that the older kids here would tell us to scare us. They said this place was a funeral home run by a man called Ramsey Aickman and he had an assistant named Jonah I think, they did funeral preparations and everything. Apparently they pretty much kept to themselves but all of a sudden people would always be at the house, it was always being visited by people, something to do with them being in the newspaper. Then one night a group of people went in and never came back out, all of them plus Ramsey were found dead and Jonah disappeared, no one knows what happened to him. I never believed them though but I always got an eerie feeling when I looked at the house or walked past. It got worse since I got cancer, I felt like something was wrong with the house and I don't know what but it's something terrible." I finished trying to hold off the shaking as I thought of what could make this house feel so bad. Matt wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug as I calmed down, he kissed my forehead and leaned back to look at me.

"Nothing is gonna happen, okay? You'll be fine." He assured me and I nodded, although I had a bad feeling that something actually would happen.

The rest of the day was a bit tense, Billy kept his distance from Matt and this seemed to make Matt feel bad, I know he didn't mean to scare Billy. I spent the rest of the day with Matt but things felt pretty strained, I just kept thinking about what could have happened here. Finally Sara called us upstairs for dinner and we all sat at the table, I sat to the left of Matt with Billy beside me. Peter sat at the head of the table.

"Okay, so…" He began, "We all know now that this place was a funeral home, big deal. It's not now and it hasn't been for years and years. It's just a house with bricks and nails and wood. It's our house until Matt finishes at the hospital." I noticed when he said this Matt looked up at me; I kept my eyes on the table even though I knew what he was thinking. When they were done here they would leave, so what would happen to me? There was no way they would take me with them because I still get treatment here and I'm not their child, they don't owe me anything. So I guess I'll be going back with my mom… great. As I think this through Peter continues talking, "And we're all under a lot of stress. So we need to pull together, like a team, okay? That includes Laura as she is now part of the family." I looked up, shocked. Everyone smiled at me and I felt like maybe there was hope. "Okay. So who wants to say grace? Matt?" Peter asked and Matt looked up before nodding and we all joined hands. As I took Matt's hand I felt a sudden jolt and my vision blurred. When I looked up there were different people at the table and the lighting was dark. I looked around and where the rest of the family had been sitting there were now strangers sitting with their hands joined. I looked to where Matt had been sitting and saw a boy not much older than me. He had dark hair and wore a grey suit, he had his eyes closed and looked like he was concentrating on something. Suddenly he started to convulse slightly and spasm uncontrollably, I could feel him hold tightly to my hand. What the hell was going on? The table starts to shake and I am getting really freaked out. All of a sudden I blink and I'm back at the table with the Campbell family and Matt is gripping my hand tightly in his.

"Matt? Laura? What's wrong?" Peter asked and everyone looked concerned.

"It's the medicines or maybe the treatments they're getting." Sara glanced worriedly between us. Matt turns to Wendy.

"Didn't you see it?" he asks in a low voice and she looks towards Peter worriedly. As she does this Matt glances at me and I give a tiny nod to let him know I saw it too, I can see his relieved that he's not the only one that saw it.

"Come on guys." Wendy says gently and Matt stands up and tugs my hand which is still fused to his and we walk downstairs. When we got down Wendy and Matt sat on their beds and I sat on mine with my arms wrapped around my knees.

"So what happened?" Wendy asks us but I keep my eyes down. Matt decides to distract her.

"Do you remember that book I used to read when we were little kids? The one with all the weird pictures? The Man Who Wasn't There?" he asks and Wendy laughs. "I used to love that book." Matt added fondly.

"Yeah, I remember." Wendy says.

"When I was walking up the stairs, I saw a man who wasn't there; he wasn't there again today, oh how I wish he'd go away." They finish together and I give a small smile as I remember reading the poem somewhere when I was younger.

"Do you remember the other one?" Matt asks a moment later.

"Maybe… Which one?" Wendy asks confused.

"It was one bright day in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight, back to back they faced each other, they drew their swords and they shot each other. A deaf policeman, he heard the noise and he came and he killed those two dead boys." He said in a quiet voice. I had never heard that poem but hearing it now sent shivers up my spine. I looked over at Wendy who looked a little freaked.

"Matt, you're scaring me." She said in a nervous voice and I looked to Matt, if only she knew how scared we were.

"Yeah, join the club." Matt said and I followed his line of sight over to the windows of the other room. I could see the outline of the burned man again and I got a really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"You alright?" Wendy asked me and I took a second to realise she was talking to me, I nodded and she got up.

"Are you guys coming back upstairs then?" she asked and I shook my head.

"I think I'll just stay down here, I'm not feeling too good so I might have an early night." I said and Matt looked at me before turning to Wendy.

"I think I'll do the same, we'll get some later if we wake up hungry." She nodded and left the room. Matt came over and sat across from me on my bed. We stared at each other for a few minutes before I decided to ask.

"What the hell happened up there?" I asked and he shrugged.

"I don't know. What did you see?" he asked and shifted closer.

"I took your hand and the next thing I know I'm sitting at the table with a bunch of strangers and there's a guy in your seat looking like he's having a fit and no one does anything! He gripped my hand really tight and the table started to shake. Next thing I know I blink and I'm back at the table. What did you see?" I asked.

"I saw the same thing only I was still in my seat and instead of you being in your seat there was a woman there, a few years older than you. I could feel my body moving and I could hear all these weird sounds, like people crying in the distance and a baby crying for its mother. Then I blinked and I was back at the table again." He said and I stood up, trying to comprehend what was going on.

"Okay so, so far we've established that there is a creepy-ass room next to ours that was used to prepare dead bodies for burial, someone switched some bodies with sandbags and now that? Was that a séance?" I asked, I had only ever heard of one and thought that maybe that was the general idea, everyone sits at a table holding hands at night and they contact spirits, it would explain why Matt heard the voices, he was probably the medium that was contacting the ghosts. "But why is all this happening? I mean why are we being shown all this shit and why is there all this freaky stuff happening here?" my voice started to rise in hysteria as I thought of how ludicrous it all sounded. Matt grabbed my hand and pulled me onto his lap as I broke down sobbing, I couldn't handle this, why was this happening to us? He smoothed my hair and rubbed my back as I calmed down and I finally managed to breathe regularly. "Sorry." I whispered, here I was having a mental breakdown on him, like he didn't have enough to deal with.

"It's alright, I get it. It's a lot to deal with." He whispered and I nodded. He put an arm under my knees and put me under my covers before sitting on the bed. "We're gonna figure this out, there has to be a reason behind all this stuff and I promise we'll fine it, alright?" I nodded and he went to go to his bed.

"Wait." I whispered and caught his arm, "Will you stay with me?" I asked in a small voice, I didn't wanna hassle him but I was scared to go to sleep on my own.

"Of course." He answered and slid into the bed beside me before wrapping his arms around me and kissing my forehead. I laid my head on his shoulder and finally I felt safe.

"Thank you. Goodnight Matt." I whispered.

"Goodnight Laura."


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note:**** Hey everyone, here is Chapter 6! Sorry for the slightly late update, I'm trying to update every Monday or so** **but I was a bit late this week, hopefully from here on out I'll update in time! This chapter is a bit of a filler because I wanted to space out the events of the movie so they don't all happen within what seems like a fortnight, I want some freaky stuff to happento Laura and not just Matt and I also wanted to have a bit more Matt and Laura time, so this chapter is full of fluff! Once again thanks to my awesome Beta, all my friends and to anyone reading the story, thanks for everything! Enjoy Chapter 6 and please review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from The Haunting In Connecticut, all I own are my OCs and anything you don't recognise from the movie.**

A few days later I sat in Dr Brooks' office as we were about to talk about my progress with the chemo treatment. The few days before had been pretty normal, nothing had really happened that was too freaky so I was relieved. Still, it didn't stop me from looking over my shoulder all the time and being extra jumpy. Matt and I decided to pretend that everything was normal, we didn't wanna freak out the rest of the family anymore and so we just went on as usual. I did a few more sketches of around the house and we stuck them on the wall, but I stopped when I came down to find a sketch I did of the door to the room on the floor for the third time in just over an hour, it didn't matter how many times I stuck it up, it would be on the floor between our beds every time I came down.

Things between Matt and I were a little awkward, I had yet to figure out how I felt about him. I loved talking to him and it felt good to have a friend through all this, but was that all I wanted him to be? When we nearly kissed I felt disappointed, like I wanted to kiss him. But I didn't know if it was just because we were in the moment or if I really liked him that way. I was interrupted over my analysis of the past few days by Dr Brooks clearing his throat and shuffling some papers on his desk before placing his hands on the desk and looking at me.

"So Laura, there is something I need to talk to you about." He began and I had a feeling I knew what it was.

"Let me guess, things aren't going as well as planned." I said and he swallowed before continuing.

"Well when we started this treatment program your cancer seemed as though it was manageable, there were not a lot of tumours developing and the majority that were forming were harmless. There were times when you would have a rapid rise in cells but it would always go down a short time after due to the treatment you're on. However as we've gone on with the treatment your cancer has gotten more aggressive and frankly the chemo is having very little effect on the rapid division of your lymphocytes now, the cell count is getting higher and we have no way of stopping it. As a result more and more parts of your body have been affected and there are now a lot of very harmful tumours forming around some of your major organs. The worst part is that we have no way of slowing it down anymore, it's gotten too strong for any treatments to handle."

"How long will I have before my organs start acting up?" I asked.

"It could be a few weeks, maybe a month or two if we're lucky. The most harmful tumours are around your lungs which can be very dangerous as if they get too fragile they can collapse on you and you could die." He answered in a sad tone and I nodded.

"So there's nothing more you can do?" I asked.

"Nothing that we believe will have any effect. I'm very sorry Laura but there is little or no chance you will survive much longer than a few weeks."

"Alright, thank you for all you've done these past few years, Doctor." I answered numbly. I stood and thanked the doctor for everything he did and left the office, as I walked out to meet Matt I felt numb. I spotted him and Reverend Popescu talking and walked over; they both looked up at me and smiled.

"How did it go?" Matt asked. I kept my gaze down because I knew he would be able to tell if I was lying.

"Alright, the doctor said there wasn't much change but my cell count has gone down enough so that I won't need any more chemo." I lied and it hurt to see the happiness in his eyes but I couldn't bear to tell him that I had only a few weeks left, he reached out and took my hand and pulled me onto his lap. I smiled at him and turned to Reverend Popescu who was watching us with a smile on his face.

"So how are you Laura?" Popescu asked kindly.

"I'm fine Reverend thanks for asking. This is Matt, remember I was telling you his family took me in?" he smiled and nodded.

"Ah yes. It's nice to meet you Matt, and thank you for doing that for Laura, it was very nice of you."

"No problem." Matt smiled at me, "She was worth it." He added and I blushed. Soon enough Matt was finished at the hospital and we waited on Sara.

When we got home I went out the back and lay on the grass, letting the sun's rays soak into my skin. I closed my eyes and listened to the leaves rustling on the trees and the sounds of the neighbourhood around me. A cool breeze drifted over my face. Soon enough I heard footsteps approach and I opened my eyes to see Matt standing over me with an amused smirk on his face.

"What on earth are you doing?" he laughed.

"Catching some sun, care to join me?" I asked and he chuckled before lying down beside me.

"Well I have been looking a little pale recently." He said and I giggled before closing my eyes again. A few minutes later I could feel him trace the back of my hand with his finger before laying his hand over mine. I turned mine so my palm faced upwards and linked my fingers with his. I opened my eyes and he was looking over at me with one of those smiles that made my heart flutter. It was moments like these when I couldn't deny I was falling for him. But I didn't wanna ruin our friendship by making a move only to have him not feel the same way. But it was moments like these when I thought he did feel the same. He would get this look in his eyes and I swear I could see the love in them, but the moments were brief because something would always interrupt. Now that it was just the two of us with no interruptions I could feel the tension I felt that time we almost kissed. I wasn't sure if it was just me or not so I decided to turn away and look at the sky again. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him doing the same. The silence was actually comfortable, I had noticed we talked a lot but when we didn't it was just as nice, we felt comfortable enough around each other that not every silence had to be broken. I sighed happily and I could hear him chuckle.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked, I turned to look at him, he had that amused look on his face again.

"Nothing really, just enjoying the silence. It's nice. For once you're not talking." I giggled and he poked me in the side which only made me laugh harder. When I opened my eyes I could see his eyes had a devilish glint and suddenly he was poking my sides and tickling me. I shrieked and laughed as I tried to squirm away but he kept me in place. After a few minutes of me laughing until tears streaked down my face and begging through my laughter for him to stop I finally got a hold of both of his wrists and pushed him onto the grass, pinning his arms to either side of his head. I looked down and he smiled back up at me, his green eyes sparkling in the sun and his hair looking light and soft. My brown curls were falling down one side of my face and casting shadows along his face, which now looked even more handsome. We remained unmoving except for our heavy breathing after laughing so much, until he gently pried one hand out of my grasp to tuck some of my curls behind my ear. His hand gently traced over my cheekbone and rested on the side of my face. I closed my eyes and leaned into his hand. When I opened them again he had that same look in his eyes only this time I had no doubt he felt the same. I gently leaned down and pressed my lips to his. As I kissed him, every Hollywood cliché I thought was a pile of crap flew through my body, fireworks were whizzing through my body, everything around us faded into a haze and it felt like we were the only two people in the world and my heart was beating faster and slower at the same time. His hands went to my waist and mine gently lay on his chest, careful not to hurt his radiation burns. For a few minutes everything else faded away, there was no cancer, no strange happenings or feelings of losing our grips on sanity; we just had a perfect moment right in the middle of hell. After a few minutes I needed to breath and I pulled away put leant my forehead on his. He gave me a breath-taking smile and I had to resist the urge to kiss him again and forget about breathing.

"I've wanted to do that for ages." I confessed and he chuckled.

"Yeah, me too. Kind of been wanting to since we met." He said and I had a smile on my face that felt like it was going to crack my lips it was that wide. He stood up and offered me his hands and we stood and walked hand-in-hand to the house.

"What shall we do now?" I asked as we came through the back door, he shrugged.

"Wanna watch a movie?" he said and I smiled.

"Sure. Do you have any good movies or do you want me to grab one from my bag?" I asked.

"Hmmm what ones do you have?" he asked. I thought for a moment before answering.

"How about Stand By Me?" I asked and he nodded before laughing, "What?" I asked.

"Well I wanna watch it and then I thought that even if I didn't want to I may have had to, I don't wanna get tackled by you for not liking it." He laughed and I remembered my lame excuse for tackling Wendy. I laughed nervously.

"Oh yeah, um that wasn't the reason I tackled her," I said and he looked confused, "After we almost kissed she kind of figured out there was something between us and she cornered me in the kitchen and when I wouldn't fess up she went to ask you and I kind of tackled her." I said and he laughed.

"Would it have really been that bad for her to ask me?" he asked with a smirk.

"Well in hindsight no, but I didn't want anything to put you off in case there was something between us, so I did what any rational person would do and tackled her to shut her up." I giggled and he walked over and gave me a peck on the lips.

"Understandable, so my health won't be in danger if I say I don't wanna watch the movie?" he asked, unsure.

"No but it's amazing so we are going to watch it. Please?" I asked and pecked him on the lips before giving him the puppy-dog eyes. He sighed dramatically.

"Fine!" he asked and I grabbed his hand and dragged him into the sitting room. We put the movie on and sat close to each other on the couch. After while Wendy came down and went to walk past us to the armchair when she noticed how I was almost sitting on Matt's lap with his arms tight around me and my head on his chest. She raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"So did you guys finally give into your hormones and make out?" she teased and I threw a cushion at her head which she narrowly avoided being hit by. We all laughed and Matt tightened his hold on me.

"Not that it's any of your business but yes, we did, are you satisfied now?" Matt asked and she nodded.

"Oh yeah, now Sara owes me five bucks." She sniggered and I sat up in disbelief.

"You were betting on us?!" I exclaimed and she laughed.

"Well duh! Sara and I made a bet right after you moved in; I knew it was only a matter of time before you kissed. I'm glad you did, another few weeks and she would have won, she thought you would take longer to get the hint that you're both in love." She cooed and sat down in the armchair. I huffed and leaned back into Matt who kissed my forehead.

"Don't worry, we'll get them back." He whispered and I smirked at Wendy but she was too busy drooling over Kiefer Sutherland.

"Deal." I whispered back.

Later on I lay on my bed thinking about today and how I was going to tell Matt. He needed to know before it was too late. I wanted to feel as normal as possible for as long as I could, the fact that I felt fine meant I could go on living like normal for a while so I decided to wait. I wanted to enjoy the time I had left with him and not have him worrying about me all the time. I was just drifting off to Sleep when Sara shouted down the stairs.

"Matt?" she called down to the basement and I looked over at his bed which was empty, he mustn't have come down yet.

"Just me!" I called back and a few seconds later I heard her gasp loudly. Just as I got out of bed she came down the stairs with Matt who looked like a zombie, he was staring at nothing and moving slowly. She laid him down in bed and walked past me.

"Keep an eye on him, will you?" she whispered and I nodded. I went back to my bed and lay on my side. Matt stared at the ceiling for a few minutes before he closed his eyes and his breathing evened out a few seconds later. When I was sure he was sleeping I lay on my back again and closed my eyes, falling into a deep sleep a few minutes later.

The next morning I woke up pretty early and I turned over to see Matt still in his bed, I smiled as I saw how peaceful he looked. I got up and went to the bathroom to get washed up. I had just finished cleaning my face was in the process of drying it off with a towel, and then I saw him again. The burnt guy was behind me again, looking at me in the mirror. I stood there frozen for a few seconds as we watched each other, I didn't want to turn around in case he disappeared again. He didn't make any gargling noises this time, just stared at me, quietly observing. I looked over him in the mirror and noticed he didn't look as burned as the last time I saw him, he still had some nasty burns but I could clearly see a pair of bright blue eyes. He turned slightly and walked out of my view in the mirror so I assumed he had disappeared again. But when I went out to the bedroom I gasped as I saw him standing in front of the mortuary. I slowly walked over and he watched my every move, until I eventually stood beside him. He looked back at the door and I reached for the door knob, I guess he wanted to go inside. As I opened the door he entered the room and walked over to the cremator at one end, looking at it for a few seconds before turning to me again. I walked over and stood beside him, he looked at me expectantly and I stared back, confused. Why was he showing me this? Just as I was about to ask I heard footsteps and Matt stepped into the room, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and yawning.

"What are you doing in here?" he asked, confused. I turned back to where I had seen the burnt guy and he wasn't there, great I just looked like a loner standing in the middle of a mortuary.

"Uh nothing I woke up and got bored so I just came in here to look around." I said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"I thought you hated this room?" he asked with doubt, I had mentioned I didn't really like being in here.

"Well yeah I find it creepy but I was curious, I just figured there's nothing to be afraid of in here so why not?" I shrugged, _yeah except for a ghost_, my mind added. He smiled and walked over to me.

"Fair enough I suppose, so are you still bored?" he asked and I nodded. "Well how about we get dressed and go into town for some coffee, I can get mom to drop us in and pick us back up?"

"Sure! Will we ask Billy, Mary and Wendy if they want to go?" I asked and he looked a little awkward.

"Actually I was thinking it could just be me and you." He asked and it took me a few seconds to realise what he meant, _the guy just asked you on a date and you wanted to invite half of his family along, nice one! _

"Ohhh… is Matt Campbell asking me out on a date?" I asked with a raised eyebrow and he blushed.

"Yeah, I mean, if it's alright with you?" he asked worriedly and I gave him a light kiss.

"Of course it is! I'm just going to change, I don't think some pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt is good for a first date." I laughed and he groaned.

"Crap that was exactly what I was planning on wearing!" he joked and I playfully hit him before going to my bag and searching for something to wear. I finally settled on a white dress with a denim jacket and some pumps, I hadn't worn a dress in years, it was hard finding one that looked nice despite how skinny I was. Matt came back from the bathroom in a hoody and jeans and I suddenly felt a bit over-dressed, but seeing him do a double take was well worth it.

"Wow you look…" he trailed off.

"Different?" I jokingly suggested and he nodded.

"A nice different though. You look really pretty." He added with a smile.

"Thanks." I blushed.

He walked over and held his arm out like you would see in a cheesy black and white romance movie. "Shall we?" he asked and I giggled before taking his arm and walking upstairs. Sara agreed to take us into town and soon we found ourselves in a booth at the local Café, once we got seated I noticed things got very quiet and I looked at Matt who seemed to be wracking his brains for something to say, when he caught my eye he smirked and shrugged and I started laughing.

"What?" he asked with an amused smile.

"Nothing, it's just you would think that by looking at us we're on a blind date and we don't know what to talk about." He joined in the laughter.

"Well I guess it's a bit weird considering we used to be just roommates and friends and now we're…" he trailed off again, unsure how to phrase where we were at.

"On a date?" I volunteered and he nodded.

"That we are." He said and we went back to silence, this one wasn't as bad, we weren't waiting for the other person to start talking or looking for something random to say, we just kind of stared at each other. If you had been watching us from another booth you'd think we were insane, but I liked just saying nothing. After a while I reached over and took his hand and was rewarded with an amazing smile, just as he was about to say something the waitress came over.

"Can I get you guys anything?" _Yeah five romantic minutes without an untimely interruption_! I thought, but instead I just smiled and ordered a coffee. Matt did the same and soon we were alone again.

"So how are you liking living at the house then?" He asked. I sat for a few seconds trying to think, the place scared the shit out of me, but would I leave? Not a chance in hell.

"I love it," I answered and he looked pleased. "I mean the place is a little freaky and I think there is definitely something up with the house. But I love living there with you guys and I feel… better than I have in a really long time, I don't know how to thank you for what you guys did, taking me in and everything." He waved his hand dismissively.

"Don't worry about it; I didn't want you being miserable when I could do something about it. And everyone loves having you there." I blushed.

"Even the guy that's stuck sharing his room with me?" I joked and he smirked.

"Especially that guy." He said and I went even redder, every drop of blood in my body rushed to my cheeks and I changed the subject to avoid any more blushing. We chatted about everything and nothing through coffee and soon we were done, he started to get up to pay.

"Wait, I have money for my coffee here." I said and started to reach for my pocket but he stopped me.

"A gentleman always pays on the first date." He gave a smile that had my heart spluttering and I had a tough time not pulling him in for a kiss in the middle of a café.

"Well aren't you the sweetest?" I teased. "I'm just gonna go to the bathroom." He nodded and walked towards the till whilst I practically skipped to the bathroom.

When I came out of the cubicle I froze as I saw a girl standing in front of the mirror. She looked up from her make-up compact and turned around to face me with an awkward smile.

"Hey Laura." She said and I internally rolled my eyes, did she have to be so perfect? She was Emily Rice, her and I practically grew up together until she found out I had cancer and I saw less and less of her until eventually she just stopped being friends with me. We would pass each other and look in opposite directions, she did it to not be embarrassed to have to talk to me, and I did it so I wouldn't have to see how much better she was than me. She stood tall and walked confidently, she had curves I would kill for and her face was so damn pretty and youthful she belonged on a Clearasil commercial. I would look at her and ask why I didn't deserve to be like her, what made her so much more worthy than me to have a normal healthy life. I noticed as I was thinking that her smile had faded and I realised I had just been staring at her for a few seconds.

"Hi Emily" I said in a small voice and headed to the sink, rather than escape as fast as possible she stood beside me for a few seconds before turning and plastering a fake smile on her face.

"So how are you?" she asked cheerfully and I turned to her with narrowed eyes.

"How do you think I am?" I asked rhetorically and she cleared her throat and looked down. I suddenly felt bad about being so mean so I tried to brighten up.

"I feel like shit but I'm better than I was. I moved out of my mom's" I said and she nodded.

"Yeah I heard about that. Listen… is it true that you're living in… _that house_ now?" she looked at me with fearful eyes and any bad feelings I had about giving her the cold shoulder vanished like smoke, she just wanted the scoop on the house.

"The Aickman house? Yeah, why?" I asked innocently and she scoffed.

"I just don't know how you could live there, I mean, don't you remember what they used to say about that house?" she leaned in and lowered her voice.

"Yeah I do remember the stories Emily, I remember we used to be scared by them when we were little and you were actually my friend. Well let me be the first to tell you that anyone that told us those stories was full of shit, there's nothing up with the house, I don't know why were so scared. Satisfied now that you have the latest scoop?" I asked and walked out before she had the chance to reply. As I made my way to the door where Matt waited the lie still burned on the tip of my tongue, but I wasn't about to give her the satisfaction of knowing how freaked out I was about living in the house. Matt smiled and I smiled back, refusing to let her bring me down.

"Where to next?" I asked as we got outside.

He shrugged. "The park, maybe?"

"Sure" I smiled and we walked hand-in-hand there. When we got to the park we sat on a patch of grass near a small pond and relaxed in the sun. I lay with my head on his shoulder and his arm wrapped around me, I was in pure bliss. We talked about this and that and stayed for what seemed like a few minutes when really it was a few hours, it was starting to go into the evening and the families in the park were heading home. I didn't wanna leave but we had to get back to the house sometime.

"We better go before Sara sends out a search party." I said as I sat up.

When I turned to Matt he was lying with his eyes closed and he shook his head, making no move to get up. I tried everything to make him get up but he just lay there laughing as I tried dragging him into a sitting position. Eventually I had enough of playing nice and walked a few steps to the edge of the pond and dipped my hands in before walking back over and smearing the water on them over his face and hair. I collapsed into a giggling fit as he sat up with narrow eyes, his hair sticking up in adorable spikes. But my victory was short lived as he grabbed me around the waist and towed me towards the water. I squealed and struggled but he eventually got me to the edge and dipped his arm in before throwing a wave of water over my face and soaking the front of my hair. I decided to take advantage of how precariously he was balanced over me to avoid getting wet and grabbed the front of his hoody before yanking him forwards. The sleeves of his hoody were drenched as he had to put his arms out to avoid falling into the pond. I got up and ran around the pond with him chasing me, vowing revenge. After a while we were both soaked to the skin and when he tackled me I didn't fight back, I was too damn tired. We lay breathless for a few minutes from all the laughing.

"Okay, you win." I breathed and he sat up.

"You fought a good fight." He said like a good sport and leaned down to give me a kiss. A few minutes later we headed back to town where he rang Sara from a payphone. She pulled up and looked at us with a raised eyebrow, we were both in the process of drying off and my hair was extra curly whilst Matt's sat up in spikes.

"Have fun?" she laughed and we nodded before climbing into the car and heading home.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's note: ****Hey! Here is chapter 7, once again thanks to my awesome Beta, anyone who had read or followed/favourited the story, I love you all! Enjoy the chapter and please review! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything from The Haunting In Connecticut, I only own my OCs.**

* * *

The next morning I sat at the table having breakfast, Sara was rushing around and laying down the ground rules before she headed out.

"I gotta go to work, okay?" she asked and patted Matt's shoulder as she walked passed, he inhaled sharply as she squeezed a radiation burn. "Wendy is in charge, okay?" she asked and put her hands on Matt's shoulders.

"Ow, ow!" he said as she hurt the radiation burns again.

"I'm sorry honey!" she said, sometimes it was easy to forget he had the burns if you couldn't see them.

"It's okay." He said and resumed eating his breakfast. We said goodbye to Sara and Matt set his hands at the table.

"You be good or else you guys have to deal with me, okay?" he asked in a threatening voice, Billy and Mary looked at him and when Billy looked at me I covered my mouth and widened my eyes to look scared and he sniggered. "I'm just kidding." Matt laughed and they both relaxed.

"Oh good because for a minute there we were all _really _scared." I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm, Mary and Billy laughed and Matt turned to me with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh I was only kidding with them; you will have to deal with me unless you behave." He said in the threatening voice again and I leaned in and stared him dead in the eyes.

"Bring it Campbell; I'm sure I can take two minutes out of my day to kick your ass." I said in the same threatening voice and Billy and Mary "oooo"'ed at us. Wendy snorted.

"God cut it out before you start making out!" she teased and I blushed as I realised how close my face was to Matt's and he chuckled. I shoved Wendy as I sat up straight and she giggled.

"So what are we gonna do?" Mary asks excitedly.

"How about a game?" I suggested.

"Yeah! Can we play hide and seek?" she asks eagerly and Wendy stood up.

"You guys have fun with that, I'm gonna go read." She said and I turned to Matt and smirked.

"Maybe Matt should find us, now that Wendy's out of the game you're the oldest." I suggested and he narrowed his eyes.

"Fine, I bet I find you first." He said and I laughed.

As he started to count I quietly slipped down the stairs, feeling glad I picked out a pair of pumps on that didn't make any noise. I made my way to the bathroom beside our room and climbed into the bath, slowly pulling the shower curtain over to conceal myself.

"Sixty!" I heard Matt shout and tried to stay quiet. A few minutes later I could hear a lot of noise upstairs and what sounded like an older man shouting angrily. What the hell? I stood up and yanked the curtain out of the way, stumbling out of the bath as my pumps slid on the tile floor. Just as I made it to the door Matt came running down the stairs and I was about to ask him what was wrong when the door to the mortuary closed with a bang. We both walked over and he opened the door and went inside with me on his heels. All around the room there were tables with bodies on them, covered in sheets. They had not been here earlier. Just as we were looking around the door behind us slammed shut and I yelped, Matt tried the doorknob but we were trapped.

"Matt!" I shouted fearfully as I looked to where the bodies were. The sheets were gone and the bodies lay on the table, writing covering their skin. As we looked around one of the feet on a body moved and I screamed, Matt jumped and stood protectively in front of me.

"Wendy! Wendy help!" Matt shouted and I hid my head in his shoulder. A few seconds later I looked up and instantly regretted it, the bodies surrounded Matt and I in a circle, their dead, vacant eyes staring at us. They didn't move or talk and eventually Matt got frustrated. "Oh for God's sakes. JUST LEAVE US ALONE!" he shouted and shoved at one of the bodies, I blinked in confusion as the body disappeared just before he touched it and Billy stood in its place, Matt shoved Billy back and Mary gasped from a few feet away from us. I looked around the room and saw no bodies.

"Come on, guys. Let's go. Billy, come on." She said and led the kids out of the room; Matt looked regretfully after them before looking over to me. His eyes softened and he put his hands on my upper arms, only then did I realise I was shaking like a leaf and tears were dripping down my face, sobs were trying to escape my mouth but I bit my lip to hold them back for fear I'd turn hysterical.

"Hey, it's alright" he said quietly and pulled my in for a hug. I sobbed into his chest and he stroked my hair.

"What do they want?" I choked out, "Why are they doing this to us? Why are you and I the only ones who see them?" I asked and he sighed.

"I don't know, I don't know what they want but we'll be fine, don't worry."

"I'm just scared that they'll hurt us." I whispered and he took my face into his hands and his eyes stared into mine.

"I won't let them, I won't let them hurt you, okay?" he asked and I nodded, he brought my lips to his and kissed me. Eventually I calmed down and my shaking stopped. He pulled away and I sighed.

"What are we gonna do?" I asked and he shrugged before taking my hand and leading me to his bed where I sat down. He rummaged through a few bits of clothing before he found what he was looking for. A card.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Popescu's number, I don't know who else we can try that won't think we're crazy." I nodded and followed him upstairs. I held Matt's hand when he rang Popescu and we arranged to meet him at a local church that had closed down a while ago.

* * *

I sat on a step below Matt in front of the church, leaning against his leg, he and Reverend Popescu had been talking the past few minutes about the two different worlds, the living and the dead and all that jazz. I stared out onto the graves around the outside of the church and wondered how long it would be until I was in one. I shook the thought off and tried to pay attention to what they were saying.

"It's all around us, all the time. The living and the dead. Invisible to everyone, almost everyone." Yeah Matt and I get the honour of being able to see freaky ghosts, lucky us.

"Yeah." Matt says and scratches his head.

"' cause we're not like other people any more. You see, most people spend their life firmly planted in this world, and then one day they go straight to the other side, but we… we take a much more roundabout path, we spend quite a lot of time in the borderland. But either way, only one thing matters.

"Yeah? What's that?" Matt asks.

"Well, find out what he wants from you." Popescu answered and I sighed, what did the ghost want us to do? The day he showed me the cremator I thought he wanted to be free, but he didn't. So why show me it?

"What if what he wants is to hurt us?" I ask and Popescu thought for a minute.

"I don't imagine he would, most ghosts remain between worlds because they have something left to do before they leave, and they need to do something before they do. Maybe he needs help to finish what he needs to do and he has contacted you to try and help him." I nodded; it did seem like a good explanation. But as I thought about it more and more I wondered, was the way he died a result of what he was trying to do?

Soon enough Popescu headed away but not after saying we were free to call him if we needed anything. Matt and I headed back to the house and walked in silence most of the way, I guess what had happened earlier had gotten to the both of us. We came back to the house and went down to the basement, we both lay on our beds and I struggled for something to say.

"What do you think he wants?" Matt asked suddenly, I breathed a sigh of relief that he had started first.

"I don't know. I mean he keeps showing us things, but no one else. Maybe what he wants us to help him with it." He nodded. I got up and sat on his bed, he sat up and silence came over us again.

"What if what he wants isn't something good?" he asked, I didn't know how to answer that. I thought for a moment.

"I don't think it'll be bad, so far he hasn't done anything to hurt us really," I looked down and Matt was inspecting the hand that had the burn on it, there was still some scarring. "Well except that." I added and one side of his mouth lifted a little.

"Does it still hurt?" I asked and took the hand to inspect it. It definitely looked a lot better.

"Not really, it's clearing up pretty well, if only the ones on my chest were the same." He said and I looked at him sympathetically.

"Do they still hurt?" I asked.

"Most of the time." He answered, that must be awful, to be in pain all the time like that.

"Are they gonna get any worse?" I asked, I wondered if it was worth the treatment if he was gonna be in this much pain all the time.

"I don't think so. They're just like bad sunburn." I grimaced, I hated sunburn, showering with it was a nightmare. I cautiously lay down, careful to avoid his sore chest and leaned my head on his arm. He turned to face me and we stared at each other for a few minutes before I yawned.

"Tired?" he said and I nodded, my eyes were already starting to feel heavier.

"I better go back to my bed; if Sara comes down here tomorrow to wake you for the hospital she may have a fit if we're in the same bed together." He grimaced and laughed.

"It's probably best." He said and I kissed him before heading back over to my bed.

"Do you want me to come with you tomorrow?" I asked as I got under my covers.

"No I'll be fine; I'll be in treatment most of the time so you'd just be waiting around for ages. Plus you shouldn't have to sit in the hospital if you're getting better. Wouldn't wanna jinx your good luck." He said brightly and I gave a humourless chuckle, yeah good luck is the last thing I have.

"True, see you in the morning then."

"Night." He said and I closed my eyes before I realised the light was still on, I groaned and pulled the blanket over my head and Matt sat up.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Yeah but the light is still on." I said and he chuckled.

"Last one out of bed has to turn the light off," I pulled the blanket down and glared at him, he gave a sheepish grin. "House Rules."He added. I huffed and got out of bed, turning the light off before turning to head back to my bed. As I turned my breath caught in my throat, there was something standing behind me, I could feel damp breath on the back of my neck. A stench filled my nostrils, but this wasn't like charred meat I smelled when the burnt guy was around, this was like death and rot all mixed in to one.

"Matt?" I asked in a quiet voice.

"Hmmmm?" he murmured from his bed.

"Turn your lamp on for a second?" I asked and he groaned.

"I thought you wanted the light off?" he mumbled.

"Matt! Please, turn the light on." I whispered loudly and he seemed to get the message that something was up. Just as he reached for the light I was pushed forward harshly, landing on the ground. The light flicked on and I looked to where I had been standing, but there was nobody there. I got off the floor and Matt came over.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I turned the light off and I could feel something behind me. When you were about to turn the light on they pushed me." He looked around.

"Well they're gone now," He assured me and took my hand. "I'm not leaving you on your own in case they come back." He said and we both climbed into his bed, I did feel a whole lot safer with him here. I closed my eyes and went into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

The next morning I woke to find that Matt was gone, I panicked for a split second before I realised he must have went to the hospital. I walked upstairs and found Wendy, Billy and Mary in the living room, so I just hung out with them until Matt came back. He seemed really tired so I led him downstairs and he went to sleep, he slept for about two hours and later I went down to see if he was alright.

"Hey sleeping beauty." I greeted as I came down, he looked like he had just woken up.

"Hey." He said and I sat on his bed.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"A little tired still, but better than I was earlier."I nodded and brushed some hair off his forehead. Sara came down to check on us.

"Hey guys, you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah" we both said.

"I was thinking about going out for pizza tonight guys, you wanna come?" she asked and I nodded.

"Sure." I answered.

"What about you Matt?" she asked and he shook his head.

"I think I'm just gonna stay here Mom, I'm not that hungry, you guys go out and have a good time."

"Are you sure? We can get some take-away and bring it back if you don't wanna go out?" she asked and he smiled.

"Thanks but I'm not that hungry even, I'm just gonna grab a snack and go to bed in a while. You guys go, I'll be fine." She nodded.

"Laura, why don't you grab a jacket and we'll head out?" she asked and I stood up.

"Yeah I'll be up in a minute," She nodded and walked upstairs, I turned to Matt who was staring at the ceiling. I didn't wanna leave him. I sat on the edge of his bed again. "Do you want me to stay?" I asked.

"No go out and have a good time, I'm fine really."

"I don't wanna leave you here by yourself, why don't you come out?" I asked.

"I'm fine; go ahead I'll talk to you later."

"Okay." I said quietly and kissed him on the forehead before grabbing my coat and heading out.

I couldn't relax at the restaurant. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I ate and laughed with Sara, Wendy and the kids but I was eager to get home to Matt. As soon as I went through the door I headed to the basement, but Billy and Mary shouting for Sara had me curious and I followed her into the dining room to see what was up. There was a huge stack of furniture in the corner of the room and as Sara and I walked around it we saw Matt sitting in the corner. His fingers were bloody and the wall beside him was covered in scratches from his finger nails. He was staring at his fingers which looked like they hurt a lot.

"I'm going to grab my car keys, Laura will you get Matt up and help me over to the car with him?" she asked and she went to find her keys. I slowly bent down in front of Matt and gently took hold of his wrists; he stared up at me with wide eyes, almost as if he didn't know who I was.

"Come on." I said gently and tugged him up until he stood; I led him to the front door and waited for Sara. She came into the hallway and took hold of Matt.

"I'm gonna grab him a sweatshirt from the basement." I said, noticing he didn't have a shirt on. I ran downstairs and grabbed the one near his bed. I walked out the car and handed the sweatshirt to Sara.

"Do you want me to come with you?" I asked.

"No it's fine sweetie they'll probably have him in for observation for the night or give him a few scans to make sure there's nothing wrong with him. I don't know why he would do this." She said before kissing me on the forehead. "Go get some rest sweetie and we'll see you tomorrow." I nodded and watched her drive off. I turned back to the house and walked inside, going down to the basement. I sat on my bed and stared at nothing, silently praying that Matt was alright. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and when I opened them, the burnt guy was standing at the foot of my bed.

"It was you wasn't it?" I demanded and stood up, "You did that to Matt, how could you? He doesn't deserve any of this so why don't you just leave him alone!" I shouted and he stared at me. "What do you want? Tell me and we can just get this over with." I asked and suddenly loud crackling filled my ears and I could see fire everywhere, I could feel the heat and smell burning flesh. When I opened my eyes again he was gone. A fire? What the hell did he want a fire for? I froze as I realised the pile of furniture earlier would have been set on fire if we hadn't come back, that was what Matt was trying to go. I lay back down on my bed and sobbed, I shouldn't have left him, if I'd have stayed he'd be alright. I finally cried until there were no more tears and drifted off into a deep sleep.

* * *

The next morning I woke to hear a car pulling into the driveway. I knew it was probably Matt and Sara back from the hospital and as much as I wanted to run up and hug him I forced myself to stay in bed in case he didn't want a lot of drama coming home, plus I wouldn't get a chance to ask him what really happened if he was with his family. The few minutes between the front door closing and Matt's footsteps on the stairs felt like an eternity, I sat up as he reached the last few steps and I could see him. The tops of his fingers had some medical plasters on them and some had blood slowly seeping through from his nails. I forced myself to look away from them and look at his face, which had a strained smile on it; he had obviously seen me staring.

"Hey." I croaked out, his smile turned a bit more genuine and he came over to sit on the bed.

"Hey." He answered and I just decided to come out with it.

"So what happened last night?" I asked and he chuckled.

"Straight to the point, huh?" I allowed a small chuckle as I nodded. "I don't really know. I was in my bedroom and that burnt guy appeared and I tried asking him what he wanted and I just remember this noise filling my ears and the next thing I know I'm in the dining room, there is a big pile of chairs beside me and my fingernails are covered in blood and hurt like hell." He looked down at them and I carefully took his hand in mine and looked closely at his fingernails, they looked like it had hurt a lot. Suddenly it dawned on me that the sound he heard was the same one I had heard.

"That sound you heard, before you went out of it... was it like... a crackling sound, really loud?" I asked and he thought before nodding.

"Yeah and I think I saw a flash of something but I can't remember what it was..." he trailed off, I had a feeling I knew.

"A fire?" I asked and his eyes went wide with realisation.

"Yeah... how did you know that?"

"Last night after you left I came down here and saw the burnt guy, I asked him what he wanted and why you got hurt, I saw a flash of fire and crackling in my ear like the sound a fire makes. I think he wanted you to start a fire and that was why you piled the chairs up, for kindling." He nodded and then hung his head.

"If you guys hadn't come in when you did, the whole house would have been up in flames, and it would have been all my fault." I lifted his chin and stared at him, willing him to believe what I was saying.

"It wasn't your fault, you weren't doing it. It was someone else controlling you and trying to make you do their bidding, that burnt guy I think. If we hadn't have come back you'd have been hurt, maybe even dead." My voice cracked as I tried to brush the thought aside. "I should have stayed; maybe if I did you wouldn't have gotten hurt." He shook his head.

"You might have gotten hurt, and that would've killed me, I'm glad you weren't there. Just one thing, why did I try and claw the walls down with my fingernails?" he asked and I tried to think, why would he have done that?

"I have no idea, to have more wood to burn? I don't really know." I said and he shrugged.

"Oh well, at least you guys got there in time. Mom's gonna make something to eat before she goes to work, do you want anything?" I nodded and stood up.

"I'm starved." I said and he chuckled. We ate breakfast at the kitchen table, I could see Billy and Mary glance at his hands every so often but he did his best to ignore it. The rest of the day Matt pretty much slept because he was tired from having brain scans done all night the night before to make sure there was nothing wrong with his brain. I was extremely relieved when Sara told me his cancer hadn't moved to his brain.

"Well that's a good thing." I said.

"Yeah but if it wasn't the cancer that caused him to do that, what did?" she asked and I tried to think of some excuse.

"Maybe he's just stressed out over the treatment or something. I could talk to him if you want?" she nodded gratefully.

"I'd appreciate that Laura, thank you." She said and I nodded before heading down to the basement. Matt was sitting on my mattress and looked up as I came down.

"Did my mom say anything?" he asked and I could tell he was worried.

"She's just worried Matt, we all are." He stood up and crossed him arms.

"I know, I just hate them thinking I've gone nuts or something." He said and I put my hands on his arms.

"They don't think that. They're confused, just like us. But they don't think you're crazy Matt, they just wanna know what's going on."

"Yeah but if they knew what was going on they'd think we're both crazy." He said, it was true; this did seem like something out of a horror movie.

"Yeah which is why it's probably best they don't know yet. We'll let them know if we have to." He nodded.

"Well I suppose hiding down here isn't gonna help, why don't we go watch TV?" He suggested and we headed upstairs to the sitting room. Soon Billy joined us and he and Matt talked again, things weren't as tense by the time we all headed to bed.

* * *

The next morning I was in the kitchen making some breakfast when Matt came up the stairs.

"Hey, you're finally up!" I greeted and silence filled the room. When I turned around he was glaring at me, and for what reason I had no idea. We stared at each other for a few seconds before he turned away and headed for the living room, I followed him out, confused as hell by his behaviour. As we came closer to the living room I could hear Wendy, Mary and Billy talking.

"Why don't you ask Matt?" Wendy asked. I wouldn't exactly advise that at this time.

"Yeah why don't you ask Matt?" Matt said in a creepy tone, leaning on the doorframe. Wendy looked to me in confusion and I shrugged.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"I'm outstanding." He answered, but his tone was weird, mocking almost.

"Okay, come on guys. Laura and I will count to thirty; let's see if we can find some new hiding places." Wendy suggested and she, Billy and Mary made their way to the door but Matt blocked the exit.

"Matt?" Wendy asked and after a few tense seconds he moved out of the way, he passed me and avoided my gaze. Wendy came up to me and grabbed my arm, towing me to the dining room.

"One!" she shouted and you could hear Billy and Mary scuffling up the stairs. "What was that?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Don't ask me, he came upstairs and wouldn't talk to me." I answered with a shrug.

"He's been acting really weird lately." She said.

"I know but it's not his fault." I defended and she looked confused.

"Then what is it?" she asked and I suddenly realised my mistake. Just as I was about to make something up we heard Billy shouting for help. Wendy and I ran upstairs to find him jumping out of the lift thing in the landing. He looked severely creeped out. Just as Wendy was asking what happened we heard Mary scream, Wendy ran ahead whilst I helped Billy up. Matt came running up the stairs and we all ran up to the attic.

"Be careful! The floor must be rotten!" Wendy warned and Matt caught me by the waist as I came up beside him.

"Rotten where?" he asked, it seemed he was back to normal.

"Well here for sure where Mary's leg fell through."Wendy said.

Matt turned to Billy and I, "Okay, now just stand back, okay?" he said and I nodded.

He carefully got Mary's leg out of the hole it was in and as she got up he reached down again and came up with a box and then a book. I carefully made my way over to beside him and sat down, looking at the things.

"What is it?" Billy asked. Matt looked at me and I could see he had a bad feeling about these things, so did I. but I knew they were important, whatever the hell they were.

Matt smiled reassuringly at the kids before helping Mary up, "Okay, come on. Playtime's over."


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note:**** Hi guys, here is Chapter 8! A little bit shorter than the last few but I think you'll like it, I really wanna thank the Guest who left a review, I'm glad you like it it really makes my day to know people love the story! And thank you for the awesome review Tom Hardy (haha you picked the perfect name, I feel like it's actually him I'm thanking!) and thanks to gothic chick23 for following and favouriting the story, thank you so much it really made me happy! Anyway thanks to my awesome Beta, thanks to all my friends, to anyone who reads the story and please leave a review and tell me what you think, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own anything from The Haunting In Connecitcut, I only own my OCs in the story and anything you don't recognise from the movie.**

* * *

Shortly after we found the stuff Sara returned home, no one said anything about what had happened. She seemed to notice how quiet we all were, and so offered to go out for some ice-cream to cheer us up. Billy and Mary ended up going, which left Matt, Wendy and I to investigate the box and the book. We sat at the dining room table and decided to go through the stuff. I sat next to Matt and we all opened the box first, a bunch of pictures were in it, along with a smaller box and some other stuff. Wendy lifted the photographs out.

"God they're all… dead." She said.

"What?" I asked, peering around Matt to try and see.

"These photos, the people are all dead, why would anyone take a picture of that?" she shook her head in astonishment.

"Post-mortem photography was pretty common back then. People would have had photos taken of their dead relatives before burial, some even posed with them." I said and she shuddered.

"So sad. It's probably the only time they even had their photo taken." She murmured. Matt opened the smaller box and there was what looked like a bunch of little wood chips in them, he lifted one up and looked at it.

"What are those?" Wendy asked. He shook his head.

"I don't know, you have any idea?" he asked me and I lifted one up from the box, looking closely. It felt all dry like wood, but the texture was all wrong. Suddenly I saw a flash of a body in my head, its vacant eyes staring at nothing. Matt and I dropped the eyelids back into the box at the same time; I guess he must have seen it too.

"You guys alright?" Wendy asked us.

"Yeah." Matt said as he moved the box away from us, I just nodded and gave a grim smile. She went back to looking at the other set of photographs.

"These are really weird. It has to be fake." She said.

"Let me see those." Matt said and she handed them to him. I looked at them as well as he flicked through. One was of a freaky mess of what looked like slime coming out of a guy's mouth, but it was floating in mid-air. What the hell? Just as Matt turned to the next photograph I froze. Sitting at the table was the guys that I had seen during the séance, he was sitting at the table holding hands with two others, his face tilted upwards. Matt looked at me and I could see he couldn't believe it, this guy was real. He had been alive, it wasn't just our imagination.

"What?" Wendy asked.

"Nothing." Matt said unconvincingly and she looked frustrated.

"Matt, come on. Just give me a chance you guys." she begged and Matt looked to me and I nodded. He turned the picture towards her so she can see the guy.

"We've both seen him." He said.

"Shut up!" Wendy smirked, obviously not believing us. I threw my hands up and Matt tapped the photos on the table.

"Gave you a chance." He said and she turned serious.

"I'm sorry. Okay, just… go on. Please?"

"I thought something was up with Laura and me but I have seen this kid. Almost every day since I got here. So has Laura."

"Is that true?" Wendy asked and I nodded.

"Yeah it's been really freaky."

"Yeah, I wake up in the middle of the night and it feels like he's been inside me, looking out through my eyes." Matt said in a low voice.

"I've only just seen him, but sometimes he shows me things, flashes of something in my head."

"Well why is he doing it to you guys?" Wendy asked.

"One bright day in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight. Okay me and him; we're just two dead boys." He said and I looked down, trying not to get upset.

"What about Laura? I though you said she was getting better. Why is she still able to see him?" Wendy asked and my head snapped up, Matt went to answer and then looked at me in confusion; I just shrugged and looked away. But I could tell he had figured something wasn't right, I just hope he doesn't realise I lied.

"Maybe the place is haunted." Wendy said and Matt looked back to her. I was thankful for her distraction, although it could have been a cheerier subject. "Either way, we need to find out who put these things under the floorboards and why." She said determinedly.

"Yeah, but how?" Matt asked.

"Okay, well, don't tell anyone, but there are these buildings all over the country where secret knowledge is kept. Known only… as libraries." She said and I giggled. A few seconds later we heard a car pull up the front and scrambled to hide the things; Matt and I gathered everything up and took the stuff down to the basement. I hid the stuff in one of the drawers and went to sit on the bed so it looked like Matt and I were just hanging out. Sara came down a few minutes later.

"Hey guys, you alright?" she asked.

"Yea fine." I smiled.

"You want anything to eat or are you okay?"

"We're good." Matt said.

"Okay, call me if you need anything." She said and walked back upstairs. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked over to Matt with a smile, but he didn't look happy. I got up and walked over to his bed.

"You okay?" I asked and he stood up, only a foot of space in between us.

"How come you can still see Jonah?" he asked and my breath caught in my throat. Oh crap, I wasn't ready to tell him.

"Oh um, I'm not sure." I said unconvincingly.

"I think you need to go see Dr Brooks, your cancer might have gotten worse."

I sighed, "Matt I know it's getting worse." He looked at me in confusion.

"What do you mean? You need to get treatment if it comes back."

"No I don't Matt because the last time I went to see the doctor he said the treatment has stopped working. I'm not getting better; I only have a few weeks before my organs start to pack up."

"Why didn't you tell me? I thought you said you were getting better!" he exclaimed and I took a step back.

"I lied. I'm sorry; I didn't know how to tell you."

"So rather than be honest you figured you'd lie and see where it gets you?"

"No I thought you had enough to deal with without me coming in and dropping the "Hey by the way I'm dying" bomb on you!"

"So when were you going to tell me? When you collapse and we go to the hospital and find out from some doctor? When you die in the middle of the night? When?!"

"When I had to! I didn't have to yet, I feel totally fine! Until I really had to I just wanted things to be normal!"

"Normal?! What is normal about our situation, Laura? We're two teenagers with cancer living in a haunted house. I already don't know if I live, I don't know why we're seeing ghosts, I don't need to add that I don't know if my girlfriend will be alive in a few weeks to that list!" he shouted and I shushed him but he wasn't about to quiet down.

"Matt please calm down. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I've barely been able to wrap my head around tis. I mean we're dealing with the stuff of nightmares here. I haven't even thought much about what could happen in a few weeks; I'm just focusing on now. And the doctors have been wrong before, my cell count could go down, you never know."

"You really believe that?" he asked me.

"No, but I'm never giving up hope." I said truthfully and he looked at me for a moment before nodding and putting his arms around me.

"I'm sorry." He murmured into my hair.

"It's fine, it's a lot to deal with."

"Definitely." He said and I pulled back and kissed him. We stood staring at each other for a few minutes and I saw what I had been trying to avoid these past few weeks, the look of pity on his face that I hated seeing. I sighed and stepped out of his arms.

"What?" he asked.

"There it is again, the look of pity. This is another reason I didn't tell you, I hate when people look at me like that. So don't look at me like that." I begged.

"Fine, it's just… I don't know what I'd do without you." He said hopelessly and I hugged him again, trying not to cry. I didn't know what I would do without him either, this was all so unfair.

* * *

The next day Wendy wanted to go to the library and try and find out more about the house, I decided to stay in bed. Matt refused to leave without me and so he stayed at the house, despite me telling him a million times that he could go. In the few hours that Wendy was gone Matt and I had hardly spoken, just lay beside each other in his bed and tried to forget everything that was going on around us. He was watching me like he wanted to memorise my whole face so he'd be able to draw it from memory when I was gone. I was doing the same with him. Last night it hit me that I only had a few weeks left; there was still so much I wanted to do. Before I had been so ready to die, never getting close to anyone so that when I did pass on I didn't feel guilty about leaving anyone behind. But now that I had met Matt, I wanted to stay with him. Many times during the day I had come close to tears, but I wanted to stay strong. But by the time Wendy got home I had successfully been reduced to a depressed mess, and slouched up to the table where she was laying out what she found at the library.

"Okay, so check it out." Wendy said as I sat down beside Matt. "A Case of Materialisation." She showed us some newspaper articles that looked very old. "That is Ramsey Aickman and this was his mortuary. Now he had a very interesting hobby; psychical research. And your guys, the dead kid, his name was Jonah." I looked at the photo of Jonah; he looked only a little bit older than Wendy. "And he was Aickman's assistant and a medium. So supposedly they contacted the dead through Jonah and people came to have chats with their dead hubby or wife or to find out where Auntie Mame hid the family jewels." She continued. "Now he claims that he discovered how to amplify the séances."

"What does amplifying a séance do?" I asked.

"By amplifying the séances, he not only contacted the dead, he made things appear."

"What things?" Matt asked.

"Ectoplasm." She said and I raised an eyebrow.

"And what is ectoplasm?" Matt asked.

"_'A mysterious protoplasmic substance streaming out of the body of mediums'_" I thought back to the stuff that was spewing out of Jonah's mouth and shuddered, thank God I skipped breakfast. "So it's just like these pictures in the box. '_Photographs of ectoplasm often show a gelatinous material oozing from all the natural orifices of the medium. From mouth, ears, nose, eyes and even the lower orifices._'" Damn, I think I may throw up.

"So Aickman held all those séances in this house and people came from all over and were convinced. Harvard professors, all kinds of big shots. Aickman and Jonah's séances were famous." She added.

"Well do we know what happened to them?" matt asked.

"Well here's where it gets a little weirder." Oh goody, like I haven't already had enough weird stuff to last we a lifetime. "Okay, so there was a séance led by Aickman with Jonah as the medium. All four sitters and Aickman were found dead. Cause of death, not clear." Wendy said.

"So Jonah killed them." Matt said.

"Nobody knows. No sign of him. He was missing, vanished, and never seen again" she said.

"Until now." Matt said and looked at me; I gave him a grim smile.

"Lucky us." I said sarcastically and he smirked.

"Well here's the weirdest part of all. Okay, so thirty years later, in the fifties when they expanded the highway, they did a detour through the county cemetery."

"Wait, we've been on that road a million times on the way to the hospital." Matt said and I nodded in agreement.

"Well, this is the thing. When they tried to relocate some of the old plots, they found something weird. Or didn't find."

"What?" Matt asked.

"Over a hundred bodies that were supposed to be there weren't. Just empty coffins filled with sandbags." Wendy said and I remembered the flashes Matt and I saw in the basement that day.

"Sandbags." I murmured and Matt looked at me in confusion for a second but then it clicked and he nodded in realisation.

"Aickman." He said and Wendy's mouth sat in a grim line. "I mean, or Jonah. Aickman or Jonah." He added.

"Maybe. But why?" Wendy asked.

"I don't know. But Laura and I might know somebody who does." He said and looked at me.

"Popescu?" I asked.

"Popescu." He said.

Matt went down to get Popescu's number and call him whilst Wendy and I cleared the table.

"You did a really good job at finding all this out Wendy; I'd seriously consider a career of paranormal investigation if I were you. Maybe you could become a Ghostbuster!" I said and she giggled.

"No thanks, I think after this I'll have had enough paranormal for the rest of my life." She said and I nodded.

"Amen to that sister, I could do without seeing another ghost for a good while after this."

"Do you think we'll get this solved?" Wendy asked and I thought for a moment.

"Yeah I do, I mean, this is all happening for a reason. Maybe we're meant to solve it; maybe that's why Matt and I keep seeing things, because someone wants this to be resolved. And Popescu will be a good help, he's always great to talk to about anything so I'm sure he can help." I said and she smiled, Matt came back in to the room a few seconds later.

"Okay so he's coming over later, I just hope Mom isn't here when he does or she'll pitch a fit." he said worriedly.

"She might not be, besides even if she is we can just say we invited him because you and I know him from the hospital. We're covered." I said and he smirked.

"I don't think the reverend would be too happy about us lying about why he's here."

"It's not a lie. It's just… not exactly the truth." I said with a sheepish smile and he chuckled.

"Well I'm gonna go make something to eat, do you guys want anything?" Wendy asked.

"After that little chat about ectoplasm… I think I'm alright." I said and she laughed.

"Matt you want anything?"

"NO I'm good I'll get something later." He said and she went into the kitchen.

I sat back down in my chair and Matt sat in his. "Do you regret coming to live here?" he asked suddenly, I looked at him but he kept his eyes on the table. I took one of his hands and waited until he looked at me.

"Never." I said and he smiled slightly.

"Things must have been really bad with your mom if living in a haunted house is preferable to living with her." He said with a slight chuckle and I laughed.

"Can't argue with you there. Well it's not just that I didn't wanna live with my mom, but because I moved in here I'm with you now. So it's worth it." I said and pressed my lips to his in a light kiss. When I broke away he grinned.

"Just checking." He said. "I'm glad you're here, Laura. I know it may seem a little selfish that I want you to stay even though this place is really creepy, but I don't know what I would have done these past few weeks with all this stuff going on if you weren't there with me." He said and I smiled.

"Well |I don't know what I'd do without you through the whole treatment not working thing, it's good to know that someone actually cares if I live or die." I chuckled and he gave a strained smile.

"I'm sure your mom would miss you." He said and I shook my head with a sad smile.

"No she wouldn't. She was glad to get rid of me when you guys took me in. I mean, I've been here for a few weeks now and she hasn't even called or stopped by to see if I'm alright. She just doesn't care. And I know if I had stayed she wouldn't have cared about anything. Not about my treatments not working or my organs failing. She would have carried on hating me until I died, and then went on like everything was normal after I did. I just felt like a ghost in that house, like she was already pretending I wasn't there because soon enough I wouldn't be. I know your mom may seem like she's smothering you now and again and she won't accept that you might not survive, but I want you to always be thankful for that. Because you don't know what's like to have a mom who doesn't care, who doesn't even hold out hope because truthfully you know it wouldn't matter to her if you were here one day and gone the next. Your mom loves you Matt, mine didn't." I finished in tears and he pulled me onto his lap and I cried onto his shoulder, the weight of what was going on around us in this house was finally getting to me. He just stroked my hair and told me it was gonna be alright, then when I finally calmed down he took my face in his hands and whipped my tears away.

"Listen," he said, "Don't worry about your mom. If she doesn't realise how amazing you are and how much you don't deserve to be sick, then to hell with her. She shouldn't have made you feel like this, you needed her and she let you down. But we won't, you're part of the family now. We won't ever leave you. I won't ever leave you." I smiled, he would never know how much having him with me helped me cope with everything. No words I could ever say would tell him how amazing he was, how glad I was that I had met him and how amazing he had made my life. I pressed my lips to his and tried to convey through the kiss how much he meant to me, I couldn't find the words so I just kissed him until I was about to faint from lack of oxygen. He did the same and I knew he had both found someone we could count on in this mess.

"Thank you, Matt." I breathed and he smiled, it was one of those rare smiles I hadn't seen these past few days because of everything, but that just made it all the more amazing. My heard stuttered in my chest and I laid my head against his chest only to discover his was doing the same. I knew then that I loved him, and I'd do anything to come out the other end of this thing with him.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's note:**** Hey, here is chapter 9! Again a little short but hopefully the next chapter will be longer. I just wanna say thanks to the guest who reviewed the story, I'm so glad that you like the story and I promise I'll keep adding chapters! They should be up every Monday so keep an eye out! Plus I am getting close to the end of the fanfic, either next week or the week after I'll have it finished! I just have to finish the stuff from the movie which may take another two chapters and then I'm doing an epilogue. I actually have the final chapter and the epilogue written so I will upload the last three chapters in the same day so keep an eye out! Thanks for reading so far and please review!**

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own anything from The Haunting In Connecticut, only my OC Laura and her mum.**

* * *

It felt like only a short while later Popescu arrived at the door, I walked out to greet him.

"Hi Reverend, thanks for coming tonight." I said and he smiled.

"It's not a problem, Laura. I had told you and Matt that if you ever needed anyone to talk to I would be happy to help." He said and I smiled.

"We really appreciate it, we're a little lost about what to do." I confessed and he nodded, I gestured for him to follow me to the dining room where Wendy and Matt stood, they both shook Popescu's hand and we sat down to show him the things, I sat in between him and Matt and handed him the photos.

"It's remarkable." He breathed as he looked at the photos of the séance.

"Do you think it's real?" Wendy asked.

"Well I've seen plenty of fakes, but I've seen the real thing. Once, in Paris. It... Was the most horrible thing I've ever seen but, uh, about this, it must have been a very powerful medium." He said and from the corner of my eye I noticed Matt nod to Wendy who then pushed the box towards Popescu. He opened the box and lifted out the box of wood chips and opened it. He lifted one out and looked at it closely, before looking down at the box in realisation. He dropped the wood chip back into the box and I stared at him, confused.

"Well, what are they?" Matt asked what we had all been thinking earlier today.

"Eyelids. Human eyelids." Popescu said in a grave voice and my eyes widened, okay… Gross. I shuddered.

"Well, what are they for?" Wendy asked, I could do without knowing my you would need someone's eyelids but curiosity got the better of me.

"Necromancy. Corpse bothering. It's a loathsome form of magic. It's, uh, seeking power through control of the dead via relics of their bodies." He answered.

"Well, why eyelids?" Matt asked.

"That's a good question. I mean, traditionally we'd close the eyes of the dead so they may rest in darkness. Removing their eyelids keeps their eyes open, makes them see. Perhaps he intended them to be watchmen, or guardians of this house… or of his secrets. Um, either way. I mean, somewhere there are the bodies that belong to these people and he used them. I think ultimately, uh, Aickman intended to enhance Jonah's powers."

"Well, he amplified his séances." Wendy said.

"Somehow he bound the spirits of the dead to their bodies, yes, as an amplifier, probably through some form of ritual, or desecration. Perhaps buried outside the house?" he said and then looked around, no doubt wondering where these things could be. "Perhaps it would help if we prayed for all those poor souls that died here. And for the boy, too." He said and we all nodded. I took Popescu's hand and turned to Matt and put my hand in his.

As soon as our hands made contact I felt the similar shock that happened the first time and then everything shifted and I opened my eyes to see I was back at the table of the séance and Jonah was beside me. I watched in horror as he twitched and gasped, his body convulsing uncontrollably. His head banged down onto the table suddenly and I winced. A clear liquid started to come out of his mouth onto the table and there were weird noises coming from him, like a low growl. He raised his head and looked terrified, he whimpered in fright and I wanted to stop it but I couldn't move. He started to gag and ectoplasm spewed from his mouth and floated into the air in front of him. I watched it as it started to glow and the table beneath me shook. I looked back up to see the ectoplasm glowing again and suddenly it expanded and seemed to burst into flames in an instant and I screamed as it rushed towards me, the heat hitting me in the face. I shielded my eyes with my arms and prepared to feel the burn of the flames but it never came.

I cautiously opened my eyes to see I was back at the table and Sara had come home and was rushing to the table.

"Matt! Who are you? What are you doing in my house?" she demanded of the reverend and I looked to Matt who was breathing heavily, I realised then that he must have been Jonah in the vision and his hand was still clutching mine, he must have been so scared.

"Did you see that?" he asked and I nodded.

"I'm a reverend." Popescu said as he tried to reason with Sara.

"It's okay, we asked him to come." Wendy said, trying to show Sara he wasn't a threat.

"Asked him?" Sara asked Wendy and looked to Popescu.

"I know Laura and Matt from the hospital." Popescu said.

"Get out of my house." Sara ordered. She reached for Matt to see if he was okay but he brushed her off and she looked taken back.

"Sara it's alright we asked Popescu to come help us." I said to Sara and she looked at me in confusion.

"Yeah we met at the hospital. I'm receiving treatment there."

"Get out!" she shouted.

"He called me for advice. It's a little hard to explain."

"Try." Sara said threateningly.

"I believe that there is something evil in this house. Something no longer living and not yet passed over. And it wants your son." I got up and wrapped my arms around Matt who looked like he was still in shock. "And that is a very dangerous situation for someone who's as close to death…" Popescu continued but Sara cut him off.

"He's not."

"And I'm as hopeful as you, but tell me, have you not felt something strange here?" Sara turned to look at Matt and I with a worried look, she couldn't deny it.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I appreciate the concern, but this is not the type of help we need right now. I'd like you to leave." She said and I sighed, he was only trying to help, and we could use all the help that we could get right now.

"Of course." Popescu said understandingly and he handed her a card with his number on it. "You're not alone." He said and bowed to us before heading out the door.

"I'll be right back." I said to Matt and reluctantly let go of him to follow Popescu. I jogged and managed to catch up to him just as he was about to get into the car.

"Popescu, I'm really sorry about Sara." I breathed as I tried to get my breath back, I hadn't realised how bad my lungs were until I tried running.

"It's alright my dear, she was just trying to protect you all." He said with an understanding smile. "Are you alright?" he said as I took a deep breath.

"Yeah fine, it's just, uh, my breathing isn't good." I said and he looked concerned.

"Have you gone to the doctor about it?" he asked and I sighed.

"The last time I went was when you and Matt were getting treatment together. I'm not getting better Reverend, I only have a few weeks left before my organs start to give out, I'm not gonna get better." I said and he looked sad.

"Does Matt know?" he asked and I nodded.

"He found out last night. I was feeling fine but I guess running isn't my thing anymore." I tried to joke but he put a hand on my arm in concern.

"Take it easy, Laura. If you over-exert yourself it could make things a lot worse." He said and I nodded.

"I won't, I just wanted to apologize and to thank you for trying to help."

"It's not a problem. If anything else should happen, don't hesitate to call." He said and I shook his hand.

"Thank you." I said and he gave me a sad smile and a nod before heading off in the car. I slowly walked back to the house and headed down to the basement where Sara was sitting on Matt's bed.

"Laura, are you alright?" Sara asked and I gave her a small smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired." She nodded but I could tell she didn't believe me; she turned to Matt who was looking at the floor.

"Call me if you need anything, okay?" she asked Matt and he nodded but didn't meet her eyes. She walked past me and up the stairs, as soon as we were sure she was in the kitchen Matt stood up.

"So you saw it again?" Matt asked.

"Yes, I saw everything, Matt I'm so sorry you had to go through that, I wanted to stop it but I couldn't." I said and he wrapped his arms around me.

"It's okay, I'm alright. But I was really freaked out." He whispered and I rubbed his back.

"I know, me too." I said.

"Are you alright?" he asked and pulled back to look at me as if trying to see if anything was wrong, I smiled slightly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little freaked out."

"What did you say to the reverend?" he asked.

"Just that we appreciated him coming over and we were sorry that Sara threw him out. I told him about my cancer too." I added.

"What did he say?"

"just to take it easy because I got a bit out of breath running to his car, my lungs are getting a bit worse." I said and he sighed.

"Do you feel alright now? No trouble breathing?" he asked and I shook my head.

"No I feel fine now, tired." I said.

"Come on, let's try and get some sleep." Matt said and took my hand to lead me over to his bed, I didn't argue, truthfully I didn't wanna be alone in my bed even if he would just be only a few feet away, I wanted to be in his arms where it felt like nothing was wrong. I got under the covers while he went to switch off the light and he switched his lamp on beside my before joining me under the covers. I laid my head on his shoulder and managed to drift off to sleep.

* * *

A short while later I woke to hear banging upstairs and someone shouting.

"Hello! Anybody home? All the lights are on!" was that Peter? I looked over to Matt who had been woken too.

"What was that?" Matt asked and I shrugged.

"It sounded like your dad." I said and Matt groaned slightly.

"He's been drinking again." He said in a tired voice and I raised an eyebrow.

"Again?" I asked and he nodded.

"He used to be an alcoholic, he had been going good for a while there but I think everything has just gotten to him." He said and leaned over me to switch the lamp off.

"What are you doing?" I asked, shrinking into his side as we were left in darkness.

"I don't want him coming because the light is on." He said and I nodded. He got out of bed and walked over to the bottom of the stairs, I could vaguely hear smashing sounds upstairs.

"Matt don't go up there." I whispered, he looked back to me and headed back to the bed and got back into it before laying down and I did the same.

"He's just in a bad mood, it'll be alright soon." He said.

"I hope so." I said and the smashing seemed to have stopped, I heard footsteps followed by a door closing so I guess he must have left. I gradually relaxed and soon enough Matt was asleep, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep but I felt too on-edge, like something was waiting to happen. After a while I gave up on trying to sleep and carefully climbed over Matt before making my way upstairs to get a drink. I grabbed a glass and went to fill it up when I noticed all the glass in the sink, Peter must have smashed the light bulbs, it was too dark to try and clean them up so I decided to help Sara in the morning. I filled the glass and took a sip before I heard a strange noise, like a rumbling that was going through the house. I stood frozen in the kitchen listening to it but a few seconds later it stopped. I shrugged and made my way back over to the stairs, then everything happened at once.

All the lights around the house flickered like an insane lightning storm, every appliance in the kitchen turned on and even the TV, filling the house with noise. I whirled around and the glass slipped from my hand before smashing on the floor.

"Shit!" I exclaimed and saw Matt heading up the stairs. "Watch out! I broke a glass!" I warned him and he carefully stepped over the glass before taking my hand and trying to get me out of the kitchen.

"Come upstairs!" he shouted over the noise but I shook my head.

"I'm gonna put the glass in the bin, go upstairs and I'll be up in a minute." I said and he looked like he was about to protest. "Matt I promise I'll be right up, go!" I said and he reluctantly made his way upstairs. I bent down to scoop up the bits of glass when I stood I froze, there was something behind me. All the sounds and lights turned off so I turned around slowly to see one of the bodies standing behind me, but instead of looking vacant and expressionless it had a face of rage. Only two feet of space between us, I was terrified and was about to ask it what it wanted, then it suddenly moved closer in the blink of an eye and I felt a pair of hands shove me backwards. I screamed as I lost my footing and tumbled down the stairs, everything hurt by the time I reached the bottom. I lay there, unable to move and my head felt like it was spinning. Suddenly a pair of hands went to lift me and I screamed and thrashed, it had come back to finish me off.

"Laura! Stop, it's me! You're alright!" Matt said and I opened my eyes to see him and Sara staring down at me worriedly. I stopped struggling and he and Sara helped me over to my bed.

"I'll go get something to clean you up." Sara said and I stared after her in confusion before I looked down and saw what she meant. My arms were bleeding were the glass must have cut them, I didn't even notice them until now.

"What happened?" Matt asked.

"One of those things pushed me down the stairs." I said and looked shocked before a look of anger came over his face.

"Are you alright, sweetie?" Sara asked as she came down the stairs and I nodded.

"Just a little sore but I don't think I broke anything." I said.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I dropped a glass when all the noise came on and went to clean it up but lost my balance at the top of the stairs and fell." I said with a shrug. I looked to Matt who seemed like he was barely keeping his temper in check, I silently pleaded with my eyes for him to not say anything.

"Do you wanna stop by the hospital tomorrow for an x-ray just to make sure?" she asked, I shook my head (ouch) with a polite smile.

"I'm sure I'll be fine, nothing feels broken so I'll probably just have some bad bruising. I should have been more careful." She set down the bowl and cloth she had in her hands and walked over to wrap her arms around my shoulders.

"It's alright sweetie, it wasn't your fault." She said and I nodded.

"Thanks Sara." I said gratefully and she pulled away and patted my hair.

"It's no problem sweetie, I'm gonna go get the stairs cleaned up. Matt can you clean Laura's cuts for her?" she turned to Matt who nodded before she went towards the stairs.

Matt dipped the cloth in the water and slowly began to clean my cuts, I could tell he was angry but he was probably waiting until Sara went upstairs. Soon enough Sara had the stairs cleaned and said goodnight before heading up to bed. Matt finished cleaning the cuts before putting the cloth in the bowl and setting it on the floor near his bed. I sat and waited for him to start shouting at me for not coming up the stairs, or getting angry about me being pushed. Instead he wrapped his arms around me and leaned his head on my shoulder. I wrapped my arms as much as I could around him without hurting the muscles and leant my head on his chest.

"I should have stayed with you." He whispered into my hair and I pulled back and shook my head.

"You didn't know that was gonna happen." I said, trying to stop him blaming himself.

"Did we really expect anything different from this house?" he said and stared into my eyes, daring me to disagree.

"I suppose not." I said and gave a humourless chuckle.

"We need to tell Mom what's going on." He said and I nodded.

"We will, tomorrow." He nodded and I carefully lay down on the bed again and he lay beside me with one arm carefully draped over my waist and the other under my head, I was thankful it was comfortable to lie this way.

"I don't know what I would have done if you-" his voice cracked on the last word and I pressed my lips to his to try and calm him down, thinking the worst wouldn't help anyone.

"I'm fine," I said as I pulled back for air a minute later, "I really am, don't worry Matt, we'll put an end to this soon enough." I said and he didn't answer, I knew what he was thinking, would we end it before anyone else got hurt? Gradually he relaxed and his breathing evened out. I lay there, unable to sleep as one thought kept running through my mind.

Who else might get hurt before we can put a stop to this? And will they be lucky enough to only have a few scrapes afterwards?


End file.
